Google's search chief rejects this strategy for licensing news content amid AI scramble

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ZDNET's key takeaways

• Traffic and links remain Google's core publisher strategy.
• Personal Context is still in internal testing.
• Google acknowledged publisher struggles directly.

Google has no plans to build a standardized API or universal licensing system for news content, the company's search chief said last week, pushing back on proposals from media advocates who see such arrangements as the industry's best path to AI-era revenue.

"The short answer is no," Nick Fox, Google's SVP of knowledge and information, told me on the AI Inside podcast when asked whether Google would pursue a standardized licensing model. "I believe that the core of the way that Google will partner with news organizations and websites overall will be through traffic and links within these experiences."

Fox's comments come as publishers ...