AI chatbots could undermine publishers’ subscription products

UPDATE: This article was updated on 2/17/23 to include comments from a Microsoft spokesperson. As new artificial intelligence chatbots and search functions launch, a pressing question is emerging for subscription publishers: Is AI poaching paywalled information? In recent weeks, tech giants Google and Microsoft both announced their intent to scrape information from the web and directly answer users’ questions using generative AI, rather than directing them to third-party websites.  Staffers at multiple publishers told Toolkits their technology and search engine optimization teams are now scrambling to understand if and how paywalled content is being used by AI chatbots, whether publishers can prevent chatbots from weaving their original reporting and information into r