CEO of People, Inc. Accuses Google of Unfair Practices, Calls for Greater Publisher Control in the AI Era

Neil Vogel, CEO of People, Inc. (formerly Dotdash Meredith), has accused Google of unfair practices in its handling of website crawling, stating that the tech giant uses the same bot to index content for its search engine and to train its AI models. Vogel, speaking at the Fortune Brainstorm Tech conference, highlighted that Google’s dual use of its crawler undermines publishers by allowing the search giant to “steal” content to train AI systems while still directing traffic to their sites. He noted that Google’s share of People Inc.’s traffic has dropped from 90% to the “high 20s” over the years, despite the company’s growth in audience and revenue.

Vogel emphasized that publishers need more leverage in the AI era and has implemented Cloudflare’s AI-crawler blocking solution to push for content deals with AI companies. The move has prompted several “large LLM providers” to approach People Inc. with potential content deals, although no formal agreements have been signed yet. However, Vogel noted that Google’s crawler cannot be blocked without risking the loss of the remaining 20% of traffic it still delivers. He called Google an “intentional bad actor” for not separating its crawling practices.

Other industry leaders, including Janice Min of Ankler Media, echoed Vogel’s concerns, calling Big Tech companies like Google and Meta “content kleptomaniacs.” Min stated that her company blocks AI crawlers and sees no immediate benefit in partnering with AI companies. Meanwhile, Cloudflare CEO Matthew Prince, whose company provides the AI-crawler blocking solution, acknowledged the challenges of regulating AI companies with outdated copyright laws. He questioned whether legal battles around copyright would be effective, noting that AI companies are creating derivative works that may fall under fair use.

Prince also suggested that Google’s influence over the publishing industry has led to a focus on traffic over original content, a trend he attributed to the search giant’s dominance. He predicted that Google may eventually begin compensating content creators for using their material in AI models, as internal debates within the company intensify over its AI strategies.

The debate over AI and content ownership continues to grow, with publishers seeking greater control over their intellectual property in an era where AI models increasingly rely on web content for training. As the industry evolves, the role of platforms like Cloudflare and the potential for new regulations will likely shape the future of content creation and distribution.

In a related development, Micro1, a three-year-old startup that helps AI companies find and manage human contractors for data labeling and training, has raised a $35 million Series A funding round that values the company at $500 million. The round was led by 01 Advisors, a venture capital firm co-founded by Dick Costolo and Adam Bain, the former CEO and COO of Twitter. Micro1’s CEO, Ali Ansari, who is just 24 years old, said the company is now generating $50 million in annual recurring revenue (ARR), up from $7 million at the start of 2025. This growth is driven by the increasing demand for high-quality data labeling from domain experts, such as senior software engineers, doctors, and professional writers, to improve AI models.

Micro1 has also developed an AI recruiter named Zara, which interviews and vets candidates who apply to work as contractors or experts. The company claims Zara has recruited thousands of experts, including professors from Stanford and Harvard, and plans to add hundreds more every week. As the market for AI training data continues to evolve, many AI labs are now interested in working with startups to develop “environments” — virtual workspaces that can be used to train AI agents on simulated tasks. Micro1 is building new offerings in this space to meet the growing demand.

The broader landscape of AI training data is also shifting, with companies like Scale AI, Mercor, and Surge competing to provide access to a large base of human contractors who can label and generate data for AI training. However, with recent changes involving Scale AI — after Meta invested $14 billion in the startup and hired its CEO — several AI labs, including OpenAI and Google, have said they plan to cut ties with Scale AI, presumably over concerns that their research could end up in Meta’s hands. Scale AI has denied these claims, stating it does not share confidential information with Meta as part of its partnership.

As the AI industry continues to grow, the need for high-quality training data remains critical. Startups like Micro1 are playing a key role in meeting this demand, while also navigating the challenges of recruiting top talent and adapting to the evolving needs of AI labs. With the market still in flux, the future of AI training data and the relationships between publishers, AI companies, and data providers remain uncertain.