News Groups Seek Regulation, Compensation For Use Of Content By AI Firms

Several major news organisations have written an open letter to lawmakers and technology companies focusing on artificial intelligence and urged them to focus on two key issues: framing rules to protect copyright in the use of news content for training generative AI models; and facilitating compensation for publishers for the AI-centric use of their published news content by tech giants.

The open letter was signed by Getty Images, Agence France-Presse, Associated Press, European Publishers' Council, Gannett, Authors Guild, European Pressphoto Agency, National Press Photographers Association, News Media Alliance, and National Writers Union.

Generative AI refers to a type of artificial intelligence that can create texts, images, and other forms of media. At the heart of the copyright controversy are large language models (LLMs), a type of AI that has been trained on vast amounts of media, including published news content available on the internet

The Indian media industry is keeping a close eye on the developments. A spokesperson for the Digital News Publishers Association, which represents 17 Indian media publishers, including NDTV, said, "Global developments surrounding AI and LLMs, show that there is a need for India's media companies to factor it in, as they look for ways to democratise the news-sharing and revenue-sharing relationship with Big Tech companies."

"We expect the upcoming Digital India Act and Competition Bill to address these copyright issues for the digital news media in the light of AI tools being used by Big Tech," the spokesperson added. 

The open letter also seeks a mechanism to let publishers negotiate deals with AI companies for the use of news content. Some of the signatories have already signed agreements with such companies to use their published material for training LLMs. Associated Press, for instance, struck a deal with ChatGPT-maker OpenAI to permit the use of its archive and also use generative AI to produce news content.

Google, too, is open to the idea of partnerships with news companies. Its spokesperson Meghann Farnsworth reportedly said the company is "exploring ideas to provide AI-enabled tools to help journalists with their work".

The global media industry, however, is split on the issue. News Corp CEO Robert Thomson recently told reporters that generative AI could be "fatally undermining journalism and damaging our societies".

The New York Times, too, chose not to join the publishers trying to negotiate with tech firms over the use of news content for training AI.