Nick Fox is the SVP of Knowledge and Information at Google was interviewed again on the AI Inside channel by Jason Howel and Jeff Jarvis. He said a lot of interesting things but said no, Google won't be offering standarized licensing deals for all publishers. He also said that optimizing for AI Search is the same as what you do for web search and normal SEO.
Update: A Google spokesperson said Nick Fox never said that there won't be licensing deals. He did not outright reject the idea.
Here is the video:
Jason Howel also wrote this up on ZDNet and said Google search chief talks future of news content amid AI scramble (note, it previously was titled "Google's search chief rejects this strategy for licensing news content amid AI scramble" but that was inaccurate).
On optimizing for AI Search, Nick Fox said it is "the same" as what you'd do for optimizing for web search and Google Search, it is SEO. Build great sites and great content he said. Nick Fox said, "the way to optimize to do well in Google's AI experiences is very similar, I would say, the same as how as as how to perform well in traditional search. And it really does come down to build a great site, build great content."
Jeff Jarvin asked, "And and is is there are there is there guidance for enlightened publishers who want to be part of AI about how they should view should they view their content in any way differently?"
Nick Fox responded:
I deeply believe, we deeply believe, that journalism is important and that's important for society. It's important for accuracy. It's important for all of these things. And so it's important that we figure out a model that actually does work that supports the generation of high quality content.We also need to as an industry figure out a way in which to do this in a way that's sustainable for the creation of high quality journalism. Our approach has been: let's work with a large number of sites. One of the things we announced this week is that we have commercial partnerships with over 3,000 organizations, publishers, publications, organizations around the world in 50 plus countries. And so, to your point, it's not just one or two at the head but rather there's a wide range," he added.
We partner with organizations primarily in two ways. I would say number one, the primary one, is driving clicks, and I believe that continues. I believe that users will continue to click through and read underlying sources. And then there's also commercial partnerships around the financial side of it as well. But it really needs to be both and I believe the core of the way that Google will partner with news organizations and websites overall will be through traffic and links within these experiences.
He then goes on about the true partnership is to send clicks nad traffic to these publishers. That is the partnership he sees.
He also double-downed on the questioning of the click studies on AI Overviews and AI Mode. He said the stats will vary by site and that some of the third-party studies were "one-offs" and "cherry-picked." He even said he saw studies that showed AI results send even more traffic to some sites.
Here are my main notes for this interview:
Expansionary moment:
(1) People are able to use Google more and ask more questions.
(2) More people using the web, means more people on the web and more overall usage.
Higher quality links? Can we trust Google?
(1) Stats will vary by site
(2) Third party studies are “Cherrypicked” and “one-offs”
(3) Also studies showed increases in traffic
How do small publishers make a content deal with Google for AI use?
(1) We need to figure out how to work together.
(2) You can’t fight users and you need to deliver the experiences users want
(3) Journalism is important
(4) We need to figure out a model that supports journalism
(5) They have partnered with thousands of publishers/organizations in 50 countries
(6) We partner with publishers:
(A) Primarily by driving clicks and traffic to publishers
(B) Google improved those links this past week
(C) “Short answer is no” for coming up with a standard licensing model for all publishers
How to rank better in AI Search?
(1) Optimizing for AI Search is the same as SEO for normal search
(2) Build great content and a great site
What have you learned in the last six months with AI Mode:
(1) The types of deeper queries people are doing
(2) User adoption is stronger in earlier launch markets
(3) Regions with less content on the web in that language prefer the AI responses because it gives a more satisfying answer
(4) Younger users resonate more with AI Mode
Hey all, today has been CRAZY! But I'm happy to finally tweet my article on ZDNET that covers our conversation with @thefox on today's special episode of the AI Inside podcast. Definitely some new nuggets in this one!https://t.co/w7WSojwxii@Techmeme @rustybrick
— Jason Howell (@jasonhowell) December 16, 2025
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