Yep, that would make sense. Not sure what competition law can do in that case. I'll have a think :)

Huh, interesting. I don't get that at all. I guess we're in different experiment groups. Thanks for the heads up, I'll keep this in mind with future work :)

Thanks - I've not seen Google doing that, but I believe you that it has.

Google transitioning its search engine over to AI mode might also be illegal under competition law too. Its certainly a more complex case though, and I've not thought about it enough to have a good opinion yet.

What a cover !
We need a strong 🇪🇺 NOW !
#Europe

The the full, open-access paper is out now. Thoughts & comments welcome! doi.org/10.1093/jecl...

Second, it could be counterproductive! It could reduce the quality of AI Overviews, lead to misattribution of content, let Google continue to free-ride others' content, cause political bias, further undermine small independent publishers (important for democracy), and harm the autonomy of users.

First, it wouldn't protect the business models of websites and it wouldn't give them more *meaningful* choice over how their content is used.

Spencer Cohen and I have a paper out in the Journal of European Competition Law & Practice exploring this issue (link below). We argue that forcing Google to let websites opt-out of appearing in AI Overviews would be an ineffective response.

The bad news is that their focus has been on letting websites opt-out of having their content appear in AI Overviews, not on the systemic issue of Google undermining their business models by 'hoarding' traffic on its own site.

The good news is that competition authorities have taken notice. The EU Commission and the UK's CMA have both been on Google's case over AI Overviews.

People read the AI Overview and don't go to the sites that produced the information in the first place: newspapers, recipe sites, niche blogs, etc. As a result, Google has begun to undermine the business model of the free and open web, which depends on traffic to generate revenue and survive.

Since Google started putting AI Overviews at the top of its search results, traffic to websites all around the world has plummeted. This is a problem. 🧵

The variety of German bees before the Industrial Revolution (187, top) vs after the introduction of pesticides (43, bottom), DHM

Yes. That’s the way forward!

Not entirely on topic but I wish people understood that a lot of what "agents" supposedly do would be almost trivially easy if these companies just had open APIs like they used to! Instead we're burning the planet so LLMs can crawl through websites and apps, its crazy!

Not really the point, but I appreciate that Frank's Zoom background makes it feel like he's appeared to you during an ayahuasca vision to deliver this message.

The decision can be found here: competition-cases.ec.europa.eu/cases/AT.40670

I'm analysing the Commission's Google AdTech Decision and finding it exceedingly difficult because of the _insane_ number of redactions. There are 4904 redactions yet only 2247 paragraphs in the whole thing. Seriously?!

The UK government didn't want you to see this report on ecosystem collapse. I'm not surprised | George Monbiot It took an FOI request to bring this national security assessment to light. For ‘doomsayers’ like us, it is the ultimate vindication, says Guardian columnist George Monbiot

Please spread this far and wide, as stories don't get much bigger than this. When the government blocks even the intelligence services from telling us we're heading for environmental catastrophe, you know we have a problem. A very big problem.
Thank you.
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Feels like something cracked today in the transatlantic alliance. Europeans have been swallowing their pride, bitting their tongues, and bending the knee. That strategy may have bought them time but it has now clearly failed. It also had a major cost - it has made the WH think Europe will cave. 1/

I find Gmail’s new “write this for me” feature deeply sinister. They’re trying to convince you that you are dumb and helpless. Don’t let them steal your ability to formulate thoughts and communicate. You were capable of writing an email in 2022 and you’re capable now.

"Machine Learning" and "Artificial Neural Networks," not LLM or GPT type "generative AI"

Academics - if you are expert in the history of the fourth amendment, today is a day you could pitch your favorite news outlet with a piece about it. If you're interested, do a little writing, then email me lollardfish at gmail and I'll give you some free op-ed coaching.

A paper I wrote (on platform regulation & democracy) got nominated for the Concurrences Antitrust Writing Awards! I wrote a short blog post explaining it here:

todddavi.es/2026-concurr...

There's a public vote to determine "reader's choice" so please take a look & vote it you're interested :)

I finally deleted my account on X today.

If you haven't already, this is a reminder :) It feels good!

Let’s be clear: if the Palestine Action hunger strikers die, the government will bear moral responsibility | George Monbiot The three remaining hunger strikers have been convicted of nothing. Yet with astonishing cruelty, ministers refuse to listen to their reasonable demands, says Guardian columnist George Monbiot

If the Palestine Action hunger strikers die - which they could do at any moment, as they are now very close to the end - it will be the government that killed them. Today’s column explains why. Please share, and write urgently to your MP.
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Front pages of American newspapers after Jan. 6, 2021, with headlines like "Capitol Chaos," "Assault on Democracy," "Pro-Trump mob storms Capitol."

Five years ago.

Computational Antitrust? "The best code is no code at all" et al. @todddavi.es ourcuriousamalgam.com/episode/358-...

Anyway, it's hard to see how this makes the US more secure. And I can't help looking at the pictures of this massive naval deployment and thinking about how much it cost relative to giving Ukraine what it needs to defend itself. 10/10

British voters want to be part of EU more than French and Italians, poll reveals Exclusive: Campaigners said Labour had to ‘catch up with public opinion’ as PM faces calls for closer ties to the EU after Brexit

🔥 This is huge 🔥

NEW YouGov poll: British are now MORE pro-EU than France or Italy.

👉 50% would vote to be in the EU
👉 Only 31% want to stay out
👉 Strip away don’t knows 👉62–38 in favour of EU membership.
🔥 Brexit is no more and Parliament must catch up!

www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/poli...