Your Choice

This week, we’re looking at the pace and scope of development in the AI space. Tamara is delving into Mary Meeker’s epic 340-page report on AI trends and what it says about the news industry (hint: not much) Derek is looking at three important reports which have been examining the current health of news media in Australia. And we’re delighted to share with you, our latest Australian Journalism Review publication, from our PhD student Chris Hall who questions whether we are asking the wrong question when it comes to assessing whether YouTubers whose output looks like journalism, are in fact journalists. It's a great read. And from me, a personal question: are you using google or ChatGPT for quick answers to fleeting (or other) questions which don’t require brainstorming or creative input?

Anecdotally, it seems more people are turning to OpenAI’s ChatGPT search function over Google for simple run of the mill questions. Could it be that what ChatGPT search has to offer is easier to navigate?

Firstly, the anecdotal isn’t backed up by evidence: google remains the search engine of choice by a large number. But ChatGPT search may well be catching up.

The biggest plus for ChatGPT search is that regardless of how clumsily, inaccurately or briefly you word a prompt, the LLM’s natural language processor deciphers your request and provides a response. And the response looks different to one you would get on Google. It’s not a series of links as per Google search but a contextualised narrative with links embedded. Google AI overviews, available on some but not all searches is the closest to it.

Just by way of example: Laura Tingle is stepping down from her role as political correspondent for the ABC 7.30 program to become the national broadcaster’s roving international affairs correspondent. Tingle has garnered a lot of media attention in the past few weeks since the announcement was made. Pop “Laura Tingle job” into google and you will receive a series of links to news stories about her. To find out what Ms Tingle will actually be doing, you need to enter those links.

Pop “Laura Tingle job” into ChatGPT search and you receive a narrative, in four paragraphs, each with a source link detailing her new role and a video to the recent 7.30 program farewell. If you are prepared to accept that ChatGPT search is not hallucinating, then you don’t need to click through to anything else. Hoping sincerely that this doesn’t sound like a spruik for OpenAI, ChatGPT’s manufacturer, but that pesky issue of knowledge cutoff is no longer pesky. The search function searches the web directly and in real time.

Of course, sources blocking OpenAI’s web crawler won’t appear in any searches and that’s a significant negative. But it’s mitigated somewhat by the deals OpenAI has been doing with reputable news outlets – Associated Press, Conde Nast, The Financial Times, News Corp and Reuters amongst others.

There’s more upside with Google search as it provides images, Wikipedia sourced informational snapshots and those often annoying, but sometimes interesting “People also ask...” questions that algorithmically derive from the questions users most often put into Google search. Laura Tingle would, I am sure, be dismayed to know that the most often asked question about her is whether she and the actor Sam Neill are still in a relationship rather than “how many Walkley Awards has Tingle won for her journalism?” FYI – the answer is three!
 
But does ChatGPT search’s ease of use and narrative output add up to good news for the news media organisations that a lot of the responses come from?

Research by the US -based search company SEMRush shows that Google still receives more search traffic than its competitors, including ChatGPT search. But habits are changing. Based on over 80 million lines of clickstream data in the latter half of 2024, SEMRush looked at how ChatGPT users were using the platform. Between July and December of 2024, the number of unique domains receiving traffic from ChatGPT surged by 300%. Great news for news websites which would be amongst the originating domains. But after ChatGPT search was introduced at the end of 2024, there was a shift in the search intention data.  On google, about 52% of searches are for information, and about a third are navigational. When ChatGPT turned on its ‘search’ function, informational searches declined but navigational searches dramatically increased, mirroring Google search intention.  

Data published by Digiday in January this year indicates that of all traffic sent to external domains from OpenAI generative AI platforms (including search), 83 percent went to news websites in April. That figure was 64 percent in January.  And which news websites? Those with deals with OpenAI are clear beneficiaries.

It's a conundrum for news media which cedes control over its creative output with every deal it makes with AI manufacturers. But those traffic numbers surely help the bottom line.

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References

Guaglione, Sara (2025, May 22) ChatGPT referral traffic to publishers’ sites has nearly doubled this year. DIGIDAY. https://digiday.com/media/chatgpt-referral-traffic-to-publishers-sites-has-nearly-doubled-this-year/

Mauram, C (2024, June 21) All the media companies that have licensing deals with OpenAI (so far). Plus, all the companies that are suing OpenAI for copyright infringement. Mashable. https://mashable.com/article/all-the-media-companies-that-have-licensing-deals-with-openai-so-far

Kelly, Brenna (2025, February 4) Investigating ChatGPT Search: Insights from 80 Million Clickstream Records.Semrush. https://www.semrush.com/blog/chatgpt-search-insights/

Semrush Newsroom (2025, February 3) New Semrush Study Reveals ChatGPT Search Trends: Insights from 80 Million Clickstream Records. Semrush. https://www.semrush.com/news/379285-new-semrush-study-reveals-chatgpt-search-trends-insights-from-80-million-clickstream-records/