Federal judge dismisses antitrust lawsuits filed by Chegg and Penske Media targeting Google artificial intelligence search.

A US federal judge has dismissed antitrust lawsuits filed by Chegg and Penske Media against Google over its artificial intelligence search summaries. US District Judge Amit Mehta ruled that Google's conduct is not illegal under antitrust law because the companies never had a formal arrangement and publishers merely had an expectation of receiving search traffic.

Penske, which owns publications such as Rolling Stone and Variety, had claimed lost traffic and argued it was unfair to have content harvested for AI answers without an opt-out choice. While granting the dismissal, the judge noted that Google's approach to artificial intelligence search may still be unfair to web publishers.

Google is currently exploring ways to pay sites directly for contributing to artificial intelligence answers through a pilot program involving 100 websites, though participating publishers have reportedly criticized the tiny payment amounts.