Reddit CEO Steve Huffman took aim at AI Overviews, Google’s AI-powered features that automatically summarises search results for most user queries, as publishers and other site owners contend with falling search referral traffic amid a fundamental AI-driven transformation of traditional web search.Expressing concerns and criticism about AI Overviews on Google Search, Huffman said that the feature lacks benefits for the larger web ecosystem. “What we see is, 10 blue links has driven tremendous value and growth to the broader ecosystem… from where we sit, AI Overviews has yet to make a similar level of positive impact, and I think that’s consistent across the broader landscape, right? As businesses, publishers, retailers, we’re still looking for that win-win,” Huffman said in comments around Reddit’s latest earnings report.Prior to his remarks, Huffman penned a letter to Reddit’s investors in which he laid out the social media platform’s value proposition and general strategic direction amid the proliferation of AI tools.“As the internet becomes flooded with synthetic content, people are craving real human perspective. We are the antidote to an automated web. AI compresses the internet into summaries. Reddit delivers the opposite: deep discussions, passionate debates, and lived experiences. People don’t want a summary of Reddit; they want Reddit,” Huffman said.“As AI makes information more abundant, the challenge is no longer finding content—it’s finding context, personal opinion, and first-hand accounts. Everything online feels flat, polished, generated, or sponsored, so consumers are overwhelmed and increasingly skeptical. We’ve never had more information, but we’ve never trusted it less,” he added.The Reddit chief’s frustration with AI Overviews comes amid reports of a breakup with the search giant. Specifically, Reddit is looking to pull the plug on its long-held, relatively lucrative licensing deal worth $60 million with Google, according to a report by Wall Street Journal published last month.Also Read | Google’s AI Overviews slashes clicks to websites by nearly half, Pew survey findsOther prominent publishers such as The Economist, Reuters, Politico, and USA Today are also looking to sever ties with Google, as per the report. While both publishers and platforms like Reddit have historically depended on regular Google search traffic, the rollout of AI Mode and AI Overviews in Google Search have left them with limited options.Story continues below this adIn other words, being listed in Google’s traditional search results and having content used in AI Overviews and AI Mode currently come as a package deal. Publishers cannot opt into one without the other.Following its Q2 FY2026 earnings report, Reddit shares fell more than 20 per cent. While the company’s quarter trounced investors’ expectations on most of the basic financials, search referrals were ‘choppy’, according to Huffman. Investors could potentially be concerned about the future of the social media platform even as AI tools continue to disrupt the traditional economics of the web.Based on a Pew Research study published last year, Google’s AI Overviews cut referrals to publishers’ sites by almost half, compared to the ‘10 blue links’ system of web search. The study’s findings were based on survey responses by over 900 US adults.In response to the survey study, Google said, “This study uses a flawed methodology and skewed queryset that is not representative of Search traffic. We consistently direct billions of clicks to websites daily and have not observed significant drops in aggregate web traffic as is being suggested.”Story continues below this adAlso Read | AI Impact Summit 2026: Publishers seek fair compensation for use of news content in AI trainingThe big tech company also published a blog post which said that “total organic click volume from Google Search to websites has been relatively stable year-over-year.”Meanwhile, platforms like Cloudflare have sought to update the default configuration for robots.txt in part to try to force Google to make changes. Earlier this year, Google announced new changes to AI Overviews that it claimed would lead to more prominent links out to other websites than before. However, it also maintained that AI Overviews were here to stay and that they are actually good for the user experience and the web in general.