Neil Vogel, CEO of People Inc., took aim at Google's web crawling practices during remarks in Cannes, France, arguing the search giant wields unfair leverage by using a single crawler to feed both its search index and artificial intelligence systems.
The complaint cuts to a central tension facing major publishers. While many want to restrict AI crawlers from harvesting their content, blocking access carries real financial risk. Search traffic remains a cornerstone of publisher revenue through advertising and affiliate deals.
"We can't actually block Google, because Google uses the same crawler for search as they do for AI, which is like an incredible abuse of market power," Vogel said. He signaled little hope for compromise, telling the audience "we're probably heading towards more confrontation than productivity" with the company.
Vogel painted a picture of the leverage game playing out behind the scenes. After People Inc. joined Cloudflare's permission-based AI crawler system, which blocks automated harvesting by default, the phones began ringing immediately. "The minute you block them, your phone rings. Everybody calls, because it turns out everybody needs us," he said. The calculus reflects a basic truth: publishers produce the high-quality content that AI systems require at scale.
People Inc. has inked AI licensing agreements with Meta, OpenAI, and Microsoft, each following different commercial structures. The most generous deals operate on an all-you-can-eat model, with platforms paying a flat fee for unlimited access. Microsoft's arrangement leans toward pay-as-you-go pricing with more granular controls.
Looking ahead, Vogel expressed confidence that publishers hold essential leverage. Artificial intelligence requires three core inputs: computational models, electrical power, and content. "We are the inputs, and we make more of the inputs than anybody, and the stuff that people are searching for happens to be what we make," he said. He predicted existing AI licensing deals would be renewed rather than abandoned, reflecting the fundamental dependence of these systems on publisher content.
Author James Rodriguez: "Vogel has a point about the asymmetry, but the real question is whether Google's dominance in search actually forces publishers' hands, or whether the real money is in those direct licensing deals where they have real negotiating power."
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