Google shipped the AI opt-out switch and the AI impressions report to every website in the world on 31 August, and on the same day the European Commission formally classified ChatGPT as a search engine.

Both of Google's own help pages now carry the same sentence, verbatim: "As of August 31, 2026, we've rolled out this control to all websites worldwide." Two things shipped together.

The Search generative AI control is a Search Console toggle offering "Include my site's links and content in Search generative AI features" or exclusion. It covers AI Overviews, AI Mode and generative AI features in Discover. It is set at the property level, with child properties able to override a parent, and it cannot be set per page. Google's stated consequence of opting out: "You won't receive any traffic or impressions from these features." Google also states it "isn't used as a ranking or inclusion signal affecting other parts of Search," and it is explicitly not the same lever as Google-Extended, which governs model training and which this radar recorded on 30 August does not block AI Overviews or AI Mode at all.

The generative AI performance report shows impressions for AI Overviews and AI Mode, broken down by page, country, device and date. It has no click data. It does not split AI Overviews from AI Mode; both roll into one impression figure.

The Commission designated ChatGPT a VLOSE under the Digital Services Act, and Reddit and Roblox as VLOPs, on 31 August. The classification turns on capability, not product category: ChatGPT qualifies as an online search engine because it responds to users' prompts and queries including by searching the web. OpenAI's own disclosure puts ChatGPT search at roughly 159.1 million average monthly recipients in the EU for the six months ending 31 March 2026, against a designation threshold of 45 million. Designated services have four months from notification to comply, so around January 2027. Obligations include annual systemic risk assessments, independent audits, and data access for the Commission and for vetted researchers.