AI summaries cause ‘devastating’ drop in audiences, online news media told | Artificial intelligence (AI) | The Guardian

Here's a concise and informative rewrite of the provided article:

AI Summaries Threaten Online News Traffic

A recent study suggests a significant drop in website traffic for online news sources due to Google's AI Overviews.

The study claims that websites previously ranking first in search results could experience a loss of up to 79% of their traffic when their content appears below an AI-generated summary.
This has become a major concern for media outlets, who fear a "devastating impact" on their audience reach. Google's AI Overviews present summarized information directly to users, potentially reducing the need for users to click through to the original source.

Google's Response

A Google spokesperson has refuted the study's findings, stating that the research is:

• "inaccurate"
• "based on flawed assumptions and analysis"
  This highlights the ongoing debate surrounding the impact of AI on online news consumption and the potential effects on the media industry.