6.7 KiB
IGF 2026 WS #398 Governance Challenges of Generative AI as a Web Search Layer
Description
"Web search is undergoing a structural change. Traditional search engines rank links and let users decide what to read. AI-powered search systems now decompose questions into sub-queries, select results, and return a synthesized answer. This mechanism, known as query fan-out, is becoming central to AI-powered search.
While this approach can improve search, it creates an invisible layer of algorithmic decision-making that is difficult to scrutinize. Users cannot see which sub-queries were generated, which assumptions guided them, which sources were considered, how they were ranked, or why certain perspectives were excluded.
Search providers no longer only organize information: they increasingly shape the questions asked, and the narratives users receive.
This transition raises governance concerns around transparency, accountability, provenance, source attribution, informational diversity, and security.
From an economic perspective, publishers report declining referral traffic as synthesized answers replace visits, while licensing agreements favour major players. Smaller and non-English outlets risk exclusion from the value chain, while paywalls and blocked crawlers may fragment the open Web.
From a social and ethical perspective, research indicates that fan-out retrieval can favour English-language sources even when a question is asked in another language and concerns a local topic. Users may receive answers assembled from foreign coverage rather than local sources. For smaller publishers, minority-language communities, and the Global South, this means not only lost traffic but reduced presence in the evidence base about themselves.
These systems are also vulnerable to indirect prompt injection, where malicious instructions embedded in Web content manipulate retrieval, generated answers, or subsequent agentic actions.
The workshop will convene stakeholders to define feasible transparency and auditability requirements for AI-powered search. Onsite and online participants will produce a document identifying what systems should disclose, what should be technically measurable, and which gaps require further research, standards, and best-practice development."
Policy Question(s)
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Query fan-out determines what information AI search systems retrieve and synthesize. What minimum disclosures would make this retrieval layer auditable by researchers and regulators without requiring companies to expose legitimate trade secrets?
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Query fan-out can reduce referral traffic to publishers. How can technical standards and public policy create a fairer exchange of value between AI platforms and the content producers they depend on, without pushing the Web toward paywalls and fragmentation?
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How should retrieval across languages be measured? What benchmarks are needed to ensure linguistic and epistemic diversity when query fan-out disproportionately retrieves English-language and non-local sources?
Expected Outcomes
The session will produce a working document based on the discussion from onsite and online participants. It will cover three topics: what AI search providers could disclose about the retrieval layer without exposing proprietary systems, how independent researchers could measure retrieval quality across languages, and which of these questions need technical standards.
The document will be written for three audiences. It shows the technical community where current Web standards for provenance and attribution stop working once answers are synthesized. It helps policymakers separate what is technically feasible today from what still needs research. And it gives publishers and language communities a common vocabulary for dealing with platforms that do not explain how sources are chosen.
We will share the outcome with standards bodies and with national and regional IGF initiatives, and use it to continue the work between IGF cycles, so the discussion does not start from zero every year.
Format
Roundtable Duration (minutes): 60 Format description: A roundtable format is particularly well suited to this session because the governance challenges raised by query fan-out require dialogue across different stakeholder groups, including technical experts, policymakers, civil society, researchers, content producers, and AI companies. Rather than relying on a sequence of formal presentations, the roundtable layout encourages direct exchange, comparison of perspectives, and collective exploration of possible policy and technical responses.
The 60-minute duration allows for a concise introduction to the topic, short interventions from the invited participants, and a substantial moderated discussion involving both speakers and attendees.
Hybrid Format
Hybrid Format: The session will be divided into three parts: brief opening remarks, a moderated discussion based on the policy questions, and audience interaction. Each speaker will have up to five minutes to present their perspective, followed by a discussion in which onsite and online speakers will be invited to respond directly to one another.
Audience participation will be integrated throughout the session. The online moderator will monitor the virtual platform and collect questions and comments from remote participants, while the onsite moderator will facilitate contributions from the room. Both moderators will coordinate to alternate online and onsite interventions and ensure balanced participation.
The platform’s chat and Q&A features will be used to gather remote contributions. A coordination meeting will also be held with all speakers and moderators before the IGF to align roles, timing, and hybrid participation procedures.
Organizers
Organizer 1: Diogo Cortiz da Silva, 🔒Brazilian Network Information Center - NIC.br Organizer 2: Mbogho Audrey, USIU-Africa
Speakers
Speaker 1: Santana Vagner, Private Sector, Western European and Others Group (WEOG) Speaker 2: Mbogho Audrey, Civil Society, African Group Speaker 3: Grace Githaiga, Civil Society, African Group Speaker 4: Varshney Kush , Private Sector, Western European and Others Group (WEOG) Speaker 5: Diogo Cortiz da Silva, Technical Community, Latin American and Caribbean Group (GRULAC)
Moderator
Diogo Cortiz da Silva, Technical Community, Latin American and Caribbean Group (GRULAC)
Online Moderator
Reinaldo Ferraz, Technical Community, Latin American and Caribbean Group (GRULAC)
Rapporteur
Selma Morais, Private Sector, Latin American and Caribbean Group (GRULAC)
Participant Benefits
What will participants gain from attending this session?
SDGs
- Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure
- Reduced Inequalities
- Partnerships for the Goals