Chegg sues Google over claims AI search tool blocks user traffic

A U.S. educational technology company has filed a lawsuit against Alphabet’s Google, arguing that the company is eroding demand for original content and undermining publishers’ ability to compete with its artificial intelligence-generated overviews. Chegg, which offers textbook rentals, homework help, and tutoring, says that Google is co-opting publishers’ content in order to keep users on its own site, thus erasing financial incentives to publish, and creating a “hollowed-out information ecosystem of little use and unworthy of trust.” “Our lawsuit is about more than Chegg – it’s about the digital publishing industry, the future of internet search, and about students losing access to quality, step-by-step learning in favor of low-quality, unverified AI summaries,” said Chegg chief executive Nathan Schultz. In response, Google spokesperson Jose Castaneda described the claims as meritless.