Once opted out, the publisher’s site will not be shown in Google’s generative AI Search features, like AI Overviews, AI Mode, or AI Overviews in Discover. (Google, of course, makes a point to note in the same announcement that its AI Overviews now have over 2.5 billion monthly active users, and its AI Mode has surpassed one billion monthly users.)

The tech giant says it will initially test the opt-out option with a subset of U.K. publishers before rolling it out globally.

The U.K.’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) calls the move to put publishers back in control of how their content is used a “world first,” and points out that it will put publishers, including news organizations, into a stronger position to negotiate content deals with Google for use of their content in AI features.

The CMA had first designated Google as having “strategic market status” last October, laying the groundwork for future regulations. In January, it pushed Google to give website publishers a choice as to whether their content is aggregated into AI search features or used to train stand-alone AI models.