Australian News Corp CEO: AI App Makers Must Pay For News Content

Content from ChatGPT began to be questioned by publishers. (photo: dock. omisoft)

JAKARTA - Australia's CEO of News Corp, Michael Miller, said that makers of artificial intelligence (AI) apps must pay for the news and content used to improve their products. This is the latest issue that comes up with the worldwide popularity of ChatGPT.

In an editorial at The Australian on April 2, Michael Miller asked "creators of journalism and original content" to avoid past mistakes that "destroy their industry" by allowing tech companies to profit from using their stories and information without compensation.

Chatbots are software that absorbs news, data, and other information to generate responses to requests that mimic written or verbal human talks, most notable of being ChatGPT-4 chatbots by intelligence companies made by OpenAI.

According to Miller, the fast pace of the generative AI represents another step by powerful digital companies to develop "new gold venues to maximize revenue and profit by taking other people's creative content without compensation for their original jobs."

Using OpenAI as an example, Miller claims the company " quickly built a business" worth 30 billion US dollars (Rp460 trillion) by "using other people's content and creativity without remuneration and distribution."

Australia's federal government implemented a News Trading Code in 2021, requiring technology platforms in Australia to pay news publishers for news content available or linked on their platforms.

Miller said that there needs to be a similar law for AI, so that all content creators appropriately get compensation for their work.

"The creators deserve credit for their original work used by an AI machine that robs the style and tone of not only journalists but (to mention) musicians, writers, poets, historians, painters, filmmakers, and photographers," Miller was quoted as saying by Cointelegraph.

More than 2,600 technology leaders and researchers recently signed an open letter asking for a temporary suspension of the next development of artificial intelligence (AI), fearing "a major risk to society and humanity."

Meanwhile, Italy's watchdog in charge of data protection announced a temporary blocking of ChatGPT and opened an investigation into alleged violations of data privacy rules.

Miller believes content creators and AI companies can benefit each other from deals, rather than blocking or banning technology.

He wrote that with "the right guardrail," AI has the potential to be a valuable source of journalism. This can help in creating content, "collecting facts more quickly," helping to publish on multiple platforms, and can accelerate video production.

The crypto industry is also starting to see more projects using artificial intelligence (AI), although it is still in its early stages.

Miller believes AI machines face the risk of their future success if they cannot convince the public that their information is trustworthy and credible, adding that "to achieve this they must compensate fairly for those who provide substance for their success."