Even when these AI search tools cited sources, they often directed users to syndicated versions of content on platforms like Yahoo News rather than original publisher sites. This occurred even in cases where publishers had formal licensing agreements with AI companies.
URL fabrication emerged as another significant problem. More than half of citations from Google’s Gemini and Grok 3 led users to fabricated or broken URLs resulting in error pages. Of 200 citations tested from Grok 3, 154 resulted in broken links.
These issues create significant tension for publishers, which face difficult choices. Blocking AI crawlers might lead to loss of attribution entirely, while permitting them allows widespread reuse
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