Google’s AI summaries are causing a sharp drop in website clicks, prompting publishers to rethink business models amid fears of a “Google Zero” future.

Google’s AI Overviews feature has led to a significant increase in the frequency of “zero clicks” to search queries — drastically reducing traffic to news websites, according to a new report.

News companies have been warned of a “devastating impact” on online audiences as search results are replaced by AI summaries, after a new study claimed it caused up to 80% fewer clickthroughs. The threat posed by Google’s AI Overviews,

Google began adding AI Overviews (AIO) to the U.S. search results on May 14. While vaguely mentioning that links in AIO get higher click-through rates (CTRs), Google has remained evasive when ...

As Google continues to roll out AI features in search, the dust is far from settled on this issue. Pichai’s optimism aside, the true impact of AI on the web ecosystem remains to be seen.