NMA accuses AI developers of illegally ripping off copyrighted news materials. The media group published a 77-page white paper on Monday, Oct. 30, to prove that LLMs and MLMs are using material for news publications for training.
The new industry organization argued that developers of artificial intelligence are copying publishers' content and using it in their AI outputs. NMA said that this activity of AI developers is considered illegal since the news materials they are copying are copyrighted.
NMA Claims AI Developers Illegally Scraping Copyrighted News
A visitor watches an AI (Artificial Intelligence) sign on an animated screen at the Mobile World Congress (MWC), the telecom industry's biggest annual gathering, in Barcelona.
According to Coin Telegraph's latest report, the News Media Alliance is complaining that AI developers are using copyrighted materials for news publications compared to other sources.
"Many generative AI developers have chosen to scrape publisher content without permission and use it for model training and in real-time to create competing products," said the media organization.
NMA said that news publishers are spending tons of money to invest in their content, as well as take serious risks. But, AI developers are just using their materials so they can be rewarded in terms of users, brand creation, data, and advertising dollars.
The group added that, unlike AI developers, news publishers need to face numerous setbacks, such as reduced revenues, tarnished relationships with viewers, and declining employment opportunities.
Search Engine Land reported that the copyrighted news usage of AI developers is a major issue since it could negatively affect the organic traffic, revenue, and brand images of media companies.
Unfortunately, Google, the largest search engine, doesn't restrict AI tool makers when it comes to using publisher materials. Instead, the tech firm even believes that all online content should be available for artificial intelligence training.
Read Also: Canva Leans on AI Amid Valuation Decline, Rising Competition-Here's What Co-Founder Adams Announced
How Can AI Developers Be Prevented From Using Copyrighted News
A photo taken on March 31, 2023 in Manta, near Turin, shows a computer screen with the home page of the artificial intelligence OpenAI web site, displaying its chatGPT robot. - Italy's privacy watchdog said on March it had blocked the controversial robot ChatGPT, saying the artificial intelligence app did not respect user data.
The News Media Alliance explained that if the United States wants to prevent AI developers from illegally ripping off news materials, then the Copyright Office should declare that using a publication's content to monetize AI systems is harmful to media companies.
NMA's leadership also called for transparency measures and licensing models so that ingestion of copyrighted online materials can be prevented.
Another recommendation of the NMA is for the Copyright Office to adopt measures that can scrap protected content from third-party online platforms.
Right now, the News Media Alliance is the one representing over 2,000 publishers in the United States and Canada against AI developers.
Related Article: Meta, Instagram Sued by US States Over Depression, Anxiety, Insomnia Effects on Kids
