What happened? A coalition of publishers, including The New York Times and The Guardian, has launched a campaign, seeking a large technology to use creative materials to develop artificial intelligence products. Conducted by the news/media alliance, the “support responsible AI” campaign accused Tech veterans of exploiting copyright materials without compensating the creators.
The campaign website frames this exercise as a direct threat to the livelihood of content creators. Along with the initiative, there are bold red-end-and-white advertisements raising slogans like “AI theft by protecting jobs from stolen,” “AI theft you,” and “AI on Watch Watch”. Alliance said that these advertisements will appear in hundreds of news publications and digital platforms across the country in the coming days. Other flammas participants include Axul Springer, owner of Atlantic, Seattle Times and Politico.
The movement presents three demands for policy makers. First of all, it says for law that Big Tech and AI companies need to compensate the creators when using their work to train their AI system. Second, it seeks compulsory concept in sourcing and attention of AI-related material. Finally, it urges action to prevent monopoly practices that can compete and force small players in the industry.
The President and CEO of the News/Media Alliance stressed that the news media industry does not oppose AI technology, but advocates a balanced system that ensures responsible innovation.
“We want an ecosystem where AI provides the withdrawal of quality materials that fuel his intellect,” he said.
The campaign emerged from increasing stress between media organizations and AI companies. Recently, Openai released an image-generation tool, imitating the iconic anime styles, such as the people of the studio Ghibli, drawing backlash from artists on social media. Many artists have criticized AI devices for appropriating their work without consent, after leaving any platforms such as some X, they came to know that the site used its post to train the AI model.
Similar disputes have arisen in other corners of the Internet. For example, last year on Bluuski, users criticized a Hugging Face Machine Learning Librarian for releasing a dataset from publicly available Blussky Post to train the AI model.
The conflict between prominent publishers and AI companies is not new. In December 2023, the New York Times sued Openi and Microsoft, accused of using their articles without the authority to train the AI model. A federal judge allowed the case to proceed, dismissing OpenaiI’s attempt to dismiss it.
The American campaign is a resonance of efforts abroad. In February, several major UK newspapers launched an initiative against unauthorized AI training on copyright content. His “Make It Fair” campaign had a bold front-position statement, urging readers to support security for creative materials against the use of unlicensed by the AI system.
