As a long-time journalist and media enthusiast who has seen the industry evolve over the past few decades, I can’t help but feel a pang of concern as I read about the latest developments between AI companies and publishers. The internet has revolutionized the way we consume news, making it more accessible than ever before, but at what cost?
With artificial intelligence companies gathering vast amounts of content from the internet, search traffic has emerged as a new battleground in the ongoing struggle between publishers and tech giants. These media outlets are striving to influence the development of AI systems that generate summaries of their news articles, often without crediting or referencing them, enabling users to skip directly to these condensed versions.
The New York Times has issued a legal warning, called a “cease and desist,” to AI startup Perplexity, which is funded by Jeff Bezos and the former CEO of YouTube. This warning was given due to Perplexity’s practice of replicating New York Times articles and using them to generate article summaries. The publisher claims that this activity represents significant and persistent breaches of its intellectual property rights because the generated content is essentially replacements for their copyrighted works.
To date, many conflicts in the AI sphere primarily focus on employing copyrighted materials for training extensive language models, such as those used by ChatGPT and various chatbots. However, content creators, particularly publishers, also voice concerns about AI companies misusing their reporting when responding to search requests.
These partnerships with AI companies like OpenAI and Perplexity are being formed, in part, due to their potential impact. One key aspect of these contracts might also bring financial relief amid a struggling media industry, as they involve citations and direct links back to publisher’s content when answering queries. In a recent agreement between OpenAI (led by Sam Altman) and Hearst, the focus is on delivering “transparency and simple access” to the original sources.
As a passionate fan, I’d express it like this: “I’m thrilled about the new partnership! It will allow us to shape the future of magazine content. Our top-notch writing, cultural insights, and commitment to accuracy and credibility will continue to shine as OpenAI’s offerings develop.
Publishers such as Axel Springer (owner of Politico and Business Insider), News Corp., The Associated Press, Financial Times, Vox Media, The Atlantic, and Hearst Newspapers have all formed alliances with OpenAI. Jeff Johnson, president of Hearst Newspapers, emphasized the compatibility in these partnerships as they aim to produce “swifter and more pertinent outcomes.
The legal landscape regarding intellectual property can be complex. While facts themselves aren’t subject to copyright, the way they are presented and organized is protected. This means journalists can report on common details without worrying about infringement, as long as they aren’t directly copying word for word. This principle could potentially make it challenging for The New York Times in its lawsuit against OpenAI, although if ChatGPT is found to have reproduced exact responses from the Times’ articles, it might help their case. The concept of fair use, which permits the use of works in specific situations without requiring a license, will likely serve as a crucial battleground in this dispute.
In May, a significant news industry association appealed to legislators to intervene in Google’s growth of AI Summaries, a feature that merges AI-generated responses with fragments of text from linked websites. The group argued that this tool would strengthen Google’s monopoly control while denying digital publishers chances for revenue generation through monetization, which they rely on to finance high-quality, original content.
In response to a letter from the Times, Perplexity declared that they are in a strong legal position. They stated, “The law understands that no single organization holds the copyright for facts. This is what fosters a diverse and open information environment, and it also allows news organizations to cover topics previously reported by other media outlets.
Previously, publisher’s displeasure with Perplexity isn’t a novel occurrence. Earlier this year, Forbes considered taking legal action against the AI company for plagiarizing content without proper credit. The controversy surrounded the publication of an AI-generated story that mirrored an investigative piece by Forbes on former Google CEO Eric Schmidt. This was followed by an AI-generated podcast and a YouTube video based on it, which subsequently outranked Forbes’ article in Google search results. Perplexity’s CEO, Aravind Srinivas, explained to the Associated Press that they consider themselves more of an information aggregator rather than a traditional news outlet.
Traditional publishers face valid concerns. Over a decade ago, tech companies started sharing content from news organizations without direct payment, which eroded readership and ad revenue, leading to the decline of the media industry. Now, with the advent of Generative Artificial Intelligence, these same corporations pose a threat by potentially shifting the power dynamics even more towards Big Tech and away from news outlets.
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2024-10-16 00:54