05/08/2025

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AI search pushing media ecosystem to the brink

British lenders face £9 billion compensation bill LONDON: British finance firms behind high interest car loans could have to pay out more than £9 billion (RM50.8 billion) in compensation despite the country’s highest court ruling that most of the controversial deals were lawful, a financial watchdog said on Sunday. The Supreme Court on Friday partially overturned judgments that the loans were unlawful, giving relief to banks which had been bracing for compensation claims from millions of car-buyers. It did, however, uphold one of the three cases, which allows the claimant to seek compensation. And in a similar but separate probe, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) said that the cost of any redress scheme relating to discretionary commission arrangements for car loans would likely be higher than £9 billion. “While there are plausible scenarios which underpin estimates of a total cost as high as £18 billion, we do not consider those scenarios to be the most likely and analyst estimates in the midpoint of this range are more plausible,” the FCA said in a statement. The FCA estimates that most individuals will probably receive less than £950 in compensation. The court ruling had given the FCA “clarity ... because we have been looking at what is unfair and, prior to this judgment, there were different interpretations of the law coming from different courts”, it said. “It is clear that some firms have broken the law and our rules. It’s fair for their customers to be compensated,” said Nikhil Rathi, chief executive of the FCA. The Supreme Court decision mostly overturned Court of Appeal rulings last year that it was unlawful for car dealers to receive a commission on loans without sufficiently informing borrowers. In some cases, the loans – available from 2007 – allowed car dealers to offer higher interest rates in return for a bigger commission from banks. The ruling means that dealers have some leeway when arranging loans, without requiring explicit consent from borrowers for terms that may benefit lenders. The case that was upheld involved Marcus Johnson, who in 2017 bought a Suzuki Swift from a car dealer in Cardiff for £6,500 including loan costs – unaware that interest on the loan amount would fund a commission of more than £1,600. When the Court of Appeal ruled in favour of Johnson, ordering FirstRand Bank, a South African based lender, to refund the commission plus interest, it sparked panic across the finance sector. That ruling was upheld by the top court due to the high level of commission Johnson was charged and the complexity of the contract setting out the fee, which limits the scope of other compensation claims. HSBC bank analysts had suggested before the trial that the total cost to the banking sector could have reached £44 billion. – AFP Jorge Leon, analyst at Rystad Energy. “But the next task will be even harder: deciding if and when to unwind the remaining 1.66 million barrels, all while navigating geopolitical tension and preserving cohesion,” said Leon. The post-meeting statement said the decision came “in view of a steady global economic outlook and current healthy market fundamentals, as reflected in the low oil inventories”. – AFP

Yet even with open access, success is not guaranteed. According to OtterlyAI data, media outlets represent just 29% of citations offered by ChatGPT, trailing corporate websites at 36%. And while Google search has traditionally privileged sources recognised as reliable, “we don’t see this with ChatGPT”, Peham noted. The stakes extend beyond business models. According to the Reuters Institute’s 2025 Digital News Report, about 15% of people under 25 now use generative AI to get their news. Given ongoing questions about AI sourcing and reliability, this trend risks confusing readers about information origins and credibility – much like social media did before it. “At some point, someone has to do the reporting,” Karolian said. “Without original journalism, none of these AI platforms would have anything to summarise.” Perhaps with this in mind, Google is already developing partnerships with news organisations to feed its generative AI features, suggesting potential paths forward. “I think the platforms will realize how much they need the press,” predicted Wihbey – though whether that realisation comes soon enough to save struggling newsrooms remains an open question. – AFP

comprehensible text, and strong presence on social networks and forums like Reddit that get crawled by AI companies. But a fundamental question remains: “Should you allow OpenAI crawlers to basically crawl your website and your content?” asks Thomas Peham, CEO of optimisation startup OtterlyAI. Burned by aggressive data collection from major AI companies, many news publishers have chosen to fight back by blocking AI crawlers from accessing their content. “We just need to ensure that companies using our content are paying fair market value,” argued Danielle Coffey, who heads the News/Media Alliance trade organisation. Some progress has been made on this front. Licensing agreements have emerged between major players, such as the New York Times and Amazon, Google and Associated Press, and Mistral and Agence France-Presse, among others. But the issue is far from resolved, as several major legal battles are underway, most notably the New York Times ’ blockbuster lawsuit against OpenAI and Microsoft. Publishers face a dilemma: blocking AI crawlers protects their content but reduces exposure to potential new readers. Faced with this challenge, “media leaders are increasingly choosing to reopen access”, Peham observed.

NEW YORK: Generative artificial intelligence assistants like ChatGPT are cutting into traditional online search traffic, depriving news sites of visitors and impacting the advertising revenue they desperately need, in a crushing blow to an industry already fighting for survival. “The next three or four years will be incredibly challenging for publishers everywhere. No one is immune from the AI summaries storm gathering on the horizon,” warned Matt Karolian, vice-president of research and development at Boston Globe Media. “Publishers need to build their own shelters or risk being swept away.” While data remains limited, a recent Pew Research Center study reveals that AI-generated summaries now appearing regularly in Google searches discourage users from clicking through to source articles. When AI summaries are present, users click on suggested links half as often compared to traditional searches. This represents a devastating loss of visitors for online media sites that depend on traffic for both advertising revenue and subscription conversions. According to Northeastern University professor John Wihbey, these trends “will accelerate, and pretty soon we will have an entirely different web”. The dominance of tech giants like Google and Meta had already slashed online media advertising revenue, forcing publishers to pivot toward paid subscriptions. But Wihbey noted that subscriptions also depend on traffic, and paying subscribers alone are not sufficient to support major media organisations. The Boston Globe group has begun seeing subscribers sign up through ChatGPT, offering a new touchpoint with potential readers, Karolian said. “(However), these remain incredibly modest compared to other platforms, including even smaller search engines.” Other AI-powered tools like Perplexity are generating even fewer new subscriptions, he added. To survive what many see as an inevitable shift, media companies are increasingly adopting GEO (Generative Engine Optimisation) – a technique that replaces traditional SEO (Search Engine Optimisation). This involves providing AI models with clearly labelled content, good structure, o Embattled news sites deprived of visitors and advertising revenue

A Meta data centre is under construction in Eagle Mountain, US. – REUTERSPIC

Eight Opec+ countries raise production by 547,000 bpd LONDON: Saudi Arabia, Russia and six key members of the Opec+ alliance said on Sunday they will increase production by 547,000 barrels a day in a move which analysts say aims to regain market share amid resilient crude prices. Iraq, United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Kazakhstan, Algeria and Oman, along with the Saudis and Russians – together nicknamed the Voluntary Eight (V8) – currently produce about 41-42 million barrels a day, so the increase is about 1.5%. Analysts said there was unlikely to be a major impact on prices, with the Brent reference oil currently selling at about US$70 a barrel. “The eight participating countries will implement a production adjustment of 547,000 barrels per day in September 2025 from August 2025 required production level,” said a statement released after a meeting where the hike was agreed. The eight key producers, who started

increasing production in April, affirmed their commitment to market stability on “current healthy oil market fundamentals”, an Opec statement read. Oil prices have held up better than observers anticipated amid strong summer demand and a high geopolitical risk premium, notably owing to conflict between Iran and Israel. “Opec+ has passed the first test – unwinding 2.2 million barrels per day (since April) without crashing prices or compromising unity,” said