How ChatGPT is changing the way we consume news
The rapid rise of generative AI is transforming how people find and consume news. According to Similarweb, in the US alone, news-related queries on ChatGPT surged by 212% between January 2024 and May 2025, while similar searches on Google dropped by 5%, Kazinform News Agency correspondent reports.
Users are increasingly turning to ChatGPT for information on politics, inflation, the economy, and climate – topics that have seen the fastest growth in interest.
Traditional categories like weather, sports, and the stock market still account for the largest share of queries, but their growth is slowing down.
These shifts are already impacting media traffic. In the US, organic visits to news sites have fallen from a peak of 2.3 billion to less than 1.7 billion over the past year. This decline is driven by the rise of “zero-click searches,” where users get answers directly from search pages or AI tools without visiting websites. Since Google launched AI Overviews in May 2024, the share of such searches has increased from 56% to nearly 69%.
At the same time, referrals from ChatGPT to news sites have soared – growing 25-fold in a year, from 1 million to 25 million. Publishers like Reuters, the NY Post, and Business Insider have seen the biggest increases. However, not everyone is benefiting equally. The New York Times, for example, gets fewer referrals due to restrictions on using its content in AI, although it still ranks among the top 10 sites receiving ChatGPT traffic.
For news organizations, this marks a turning point: visibility in search is no longer enough to attract readers. It’s now essential to understand how to work with AI tools – and who stands to gain from their growing influence.
Earlier, Kazinform News Agency reported on how MIT’s new AI framework could rethink machine learning.