PARIS - France’s competition watchdog on March 20 said it fined Alphabet’s Google €250 million (S$364 million) for breaches linked to European Union intellectual property rules in its relationship with media publishers, citing concerns about the company’s artificial intelligence (AI) service.

The watchdog said Google’s AI-powered chatbot Bard – launched in 2023 and since rebranded under the name Gemini – was trained on data from unspecified media outlets and news agencies without the company informing them or the regulator.

Google has pledged not to contest the facts as part of settlement proceedings, the watchdog said, adding the company also proposed a series of remedy measures for certain shortcomings.

Google said it accepted the settlement “because it is time to move on”.

It added: “We want to focus on the larger goal of sustainable approaches to connecting people with quality content and on working constructively with French publishers.”

The fine is linked to a copyright dispute in France over online content in a case triggered by complaints from some of the country’s biggest news organisations, including Agence France-Presse.

The dispute appeared to be resolved in 2022 when the US tech giant dropped its appeal against an initial €500 million fine issued at the end of a major investigation carried out by Autorite de la Concurrence.

But in its March 20 statement, the watchdog said Google violated the terms of four out of seven commitments agreed in the settlement, including conducting negotiations with publishers in good faith and providing transparent information.

“Subsequently, Google linked the use of the content concerned by its artificial intelligence service to the display of protected content”, the watchdog said.

It added that in doing so, Google hindered the ability of publishers and press agencies to negotiate fair prices.

The fine comes as many publishers, writers and newsrooms seek to limit the scraping – or automatic collection – of data by AI services of their online content without their consent or fair compensation.

The New York Times in 2023 sued Google rivals Microsoft and OpenAI, the creator of the popular AI platform ChatGPT, accusing them of using millions of the newspaper’s articles without permission to help train chatbots.

“We – and others – need more clarity on whom we are paying for what,” Google said. REUTERS