Reddit CEO says Google AI Overviews break the web's win-win deal

Reddit’s CEO thinks Google’s AI search summaries take far more traffic than they give back.

During Reddit's latest earnings report, CEO Steve Huffman took aim at Google’s AI Overviews. He argued that while traditional "10 blue links" historically drove traffic across the web, AI summaries fail to deliver a fair "win-win" for content creators. According to a Wall Street Journal report, Reddit is now considering ending its $60 million licensing deal with Google, joining publishers like Reuters, Politico, and The Economist in rethinking their partnerships.

Why it matters: AI summaries keep users on search pages instead of sending them to source sites. A Pew Research study found that Google’s AI Overviews cut web referrals by almost half compared to standard search links. If human-first platforms pull their content, AI search tools will end up summarizing an increasingly quiet web.

Know this: Huffman framed Reddit as "the antidote to an automated web," writing to investors that "people don’t want a summary of Reddit; they want Reddit."

Scraping the web to replace the source site isn't much of a partnership.