Don’t you love it when Google uses your photo in their AI Overviews but doesn’t bother to credit you, link to your site, or even mention that it’s your photo? (In this particular case, the image is one I personally created.) It feels a bit like someone borrowing your car without asking—only to use it for their errands without so much as a thank-you. The screen capture above is an example of this. Google’s using an image of mine in the AI Overviews without any credit to the source of the image.
The Problem: Copyright Law and the Ethics of Attribution
Copyright law is one of the cornerstones of creative protection, granting creators ownership of their intellectual property the moment they create it. For images, this means that the person who clicks the shutter, paints the canvas, or designs the digital artwork retains exclusive rights to reproduce, distribute, display, and license their work. These protections are not optional—they’re baked into the law to encourage creativity and innovation by ensuring creators can control how their work is used.
When someone uses an image without permission, it’s a violation of those rights and can constitute copyright infringement. This isn’t just a theoretical concern; it’s a legal one. Courts have consistently upheld that unauthorized use of copyrighted material—whether in a blog post, social media, marketing collateral, or even AI-generated content—can lead to lawsuits and substantial penalties.
Imagine if I decided to take an image off the internet and use it in my content without permission or credit. The image creator would have every right to sue me for damages. Now, compare that to what happens when Google, one of the most powerful companies in the world, takes an image without crediting the creator and uses it in its AI Overviews. How is this different? Should a tech giant be given a free pass just because of its size and influence?
This issue goes beyond legality—it’s also about ethics. Using someone’s image without permission undermines the value of their work, stripping away the acknowledgment and potential compensation that the creator deserves.
The screen capture above is an example of the Google search results, specifically the image results, for a search query “SEO Expert Witness”. This is a lot different when Google uses an image without permission and they display the image in search results than using the image in their content (AI Overviews) and not crediting the image owner.
Search Results vs. AI Overviews: Not the Same Thing
To understand why this is such a problem, we need to distinguish between search results and AI content. In search results, Google indexes content from across the web and provides thumbnails of images alongside text snippets to help users find what they’re looking for. These thumbnails typically include a link to the source, creating a symbiotic relationship where the creator’s work gets exposure, and the user gets directed to the original content.
But AI Overviews are not search results. They are content in their own right, created by Google’s AI models. These overviews aim to answer questions or provide summaries directly within the search interface, often pulling in text, data, and yes, images. When Google uses an image in this context, it’s no longer merely indexing—it’s repurposing that content as part of a standalone product.
And here’s the kicker: there’s no link to the source, no credit to the creator, and no acknowledgment that the image is copyrighted. It’s like presenting a beautiful painting in a gallery but refusing to mention the artist’s name. In this scenario, Google isn’t driving traffic to the creator’s site or giving them any tangible benefit. Instead, they’re using someone else’s work to enhance their own product without offering anything in return.
That’s not indexing. That’s appropriation.
Why Crediting the Creator Matters
At its core, crediting the creator isn’t just about avoiding legal troubles—it’s about respecting the value of creative work. Every photo, graphic, or piece of digital art represents hours of effort, skill, and dedication. By failing to credit the creator, Google diminishes the significance of that work, reducing it to a nameless, faceless utility.
When Google credits an image’s creator, even with something as simple as a hyperlink to the source, it can make a world of difference. It helps creators gain recognition, build their portfolios, and, in many cases, earn a living. For photographers, illustrators, and designers, visibility and attribution are often as valuable as monetary compensation.
Furthermore, properly crediting creators aligns with Google’s broader mission of organizing the world’s information and making it universally accessible and useful. How can that mission ring true when creators’ rights are ignored?
A Call for Fairness and Accountability
Let’s be clear: I’m not saying that Google should stop using images entirely. Indexing images in search results serves a valuable purpose and helps users discover content efficiently. But when those images are taken from search results and integrated into AI-generated content, the rules change. AI Overviews are not search—they’re a content product. And as a content product, they carry a responsibility to credit the creators whose work is featured.
If I, as an individual, were to use someone’s image without permission or credit in my own content, I’d be opening myself up to lawsuits and accusations of plagiarism. Why should Google, with all its resources and expertise, be allowed to play by a different set of rules? If anything, their position as a global leader in technology should hold them to a higher standard of transparency and respect for creators.
The solution is simple: if Google wants to use an image in its AI content, they need to credit the creator. A hyperlink, a name, a small acknowledgment—it’s not much to ask for, but it would go a long way toward supporting the creative community and upholding the principles of copyright law.
It’s time we start holding tech giants accountable. If we can play by the rules, so can they. After all, giving credit is more than just a legal obligation—it’s the right thing to do.
Note: Just to clarify and be transparent about this, the “image” in question, the one shown in the screen capture(s) above, are licensed images, and I altered the images and used them on one of my websites. However, the images appear on my websites, so that’s why I’m saying that they’re “my” images–it is only in the context that the altered images show only on my websites. I don’t claim any ownership of the images. For purposes of this particular issue and this particular blog post/article, I’m not concerned about the actual image, it’s the principle here, that Google’s using images in their content (AI Overviews) without crediting the owner of the image, or showing a link to where they obtained the image for their content.
Update: This original post was made before some changes appear to have occurred in the specific AI Overview in question that I used as an example here. The original search for “SEO Expert Witness”, when I performed the search query on desktop (on my laptop), had the thumbnail as shown. However, when the original search query was performed, the thumbnail image itself was NOT clickable at all. Clicking on or doing a mouseover did not have any results, the image was being used as a thumbnail only in the AI Overview. But, now, a few hours after the original post was made, the functionality of the AI Overview has changed. Now, when clicking on the thumbnail image in the AI Overview, I see the following:
Keep in mind that I *definitely* would have noticed that the image was clickable prior to making this original post/article. If this functionality was available (if the image was clickable previously), there would really have been no point in even bringing up this topic at all, as the image would have had a link, or brought up the image result as it is shown above. Let me be clear here: if this second, updated functionality occurred when I originally searched for “SEO expert witness”, then I would not have made this post and not have written this. I’ve pointed this out to others who have a vested interested in Google’s search engine results, especially AI Overviews.
Now, what is making me scratch my head here is that originally the AI Overview did NOT have any link or credit in the thumbnail. But after pointing this out on social media and writing the post, now it’s corrected, which is a good thing. Did Google’s AI “fix itself” so to speak in this situation? I doubt someone at Google made any changes–especially for one particular search query. Did Google’s AI make this change due to the fact that more people were performing searches for this particular search query? I doubt we will ever know.