Washington Post: Can the News Industry Stand Up to Artificial Intelligence?

SadaNews - Writer Adam Lashinsky, in an opinion piece published by the Washington Post, believes that the news industry faces an unprecedented challenge against generative artificial intelligence technologies, as new models appropriate intellectual property without permission, leading to a decline in visits to news websites.

The writer noted that technology has not been kind to the news industry for an entire generation, and rapidly, more than many expected, artificial intelligence threatens the few remaining advantages that Silicon Valley has granted the news industry, namely the ability to distribute articles digitally and attract new readers.

The writer explained that this process began less than three years ago when OpenAI released the first version of ChatGPT to the public, where users were amazed by the program's ability to write compelling reports on various topics.

It was not important for the employee preparing a report, or the college student who is aided by artificial intelligence in their research, to know whether ChatGPT generated those reports relying on vast amounts of data that they do not possess in the first place.

The writer adds that publishers soon realized that generative AI programs were committing digital theft of their intellectual property, and the worst fears of the news industry became a reality in May 2024 when Google began widely displaying "AI-generated overviews" to users during searches.

The writer states that these summaries provided by Google using AI evoke both admiration and resentment; he appreciates the quality of the summaries, but he is unhappy with Google and other platforms neglecting to reference news sites, which limits newspapers' and websites' ability to attract new readers.

Legal Battles

The writer believes that if the news industry wants to assert its presence in the age of artificial intelligence, it must fight against the robots and software that exploit data without permission, emphasizing that this battle has indeed begun on multiple fronts.

First, the industry is engaged in a legal battle, with many lawsuits claiming that AI companies are violating copyright laws by training their models using data without the publishers' consent.

Among the most notable cases is one filed by the New York Times against OpenAI and its financial backer Microsoft. There is a similar battle between Dow Jones, publisher of the Wall Street Journal, and Perplexity AI.

The writer mentions that the battle is not limited to leading news organizations, as Disney and Universal have filed a lawsuit against Midjourney, a company specializing in generating images using AI, for training its models using their films, and Strike 3 Holdings has filed a similar lawsuit against Meta.

The writer added that the news industry is preparing to present the case directly in Washington, where the Trump administration surprisingly welcomed complaints from publishers despite its generally supportive stance toward artificial intelligence.

The "News Media Alliance" launched a campaign last spring to stop "AI thefts," and published advertisements in newspapers asserting that these "thefts contradict American values."

The writer continues that the technology itself offers a glimmer of hope for the publishing industry to win its battle against content theft, as many software companies provide publishers with products that track unauthorized content exploitation.

One promising provider is Cloudflare, known for its cybersecurity software, which has launched a product capable of identifying AI models attempting to train on the content of news websites.

He also noted that many technology companies are currently working on licensing deals—especially with well-known publishers—to exploit content legally.