Google could be considering the possibility of charging for premium content generated by artificial intelligence. The company may be renewing its business model, which could put some of its main products behind a paywall. If so, it would be the first time that Google charges for any of its content.
According to The Financial Times, Google is considering the possibility of adding certain AI-based search functions to Google One, its premium subscription service. The service already offers access to Google’s new AI assistant, Gemini, the company’s version of ChatGPT, OpenAI’s chatbot.
However, the article from The Financial Times adds that Google executives have not yet made a decision on when to proceed with the change or if they will do it at all, as their engineers are still gathering the necessary reports to deploy the service. After the changes, Google’s search engine would still be free, but subscribers would still see ads.
In a statement to the BBC, Google said that they are “not working on or considering an ad-free search experience”. “As we have done many times before, we will continue to create new premium features and services to enhance our subscription offerings across Google,” the company said. “We have nothing to announce at this time.”
Google had to deal with a series of problems earlier this year when Gemini, which can answer questions in text form but also generate images through prompts, sparked controversy after creating inaccurate or erroneous images. Google apologized and immediately “paused” the tool, as according to the company, Gemini was “missing the mark”.
