Should publishers be required to use a disclaimer when using AI?
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With generative AI poised to reshape the publishing industry, companies are scrambling to take positions on the latest technology. What does it mean for their operations? How will it impact their workforce? And when can they begin to expect to benefit from, or be harmed by, the new developments? These questions have rattled publishers in nearly every sector of the media industry, from online content and the printed word to movies and even music.
Snapshot: The knee-jerk reaction of many firms was to band together to stave off any threats to their bottom line. Hollywood actors and writers have gone on strike in part over fear that they might lose or share revenue with machines, with the walkout now going on for more than 100 days. Publishers like the New York Times (NYSE:NYT), Wall Street Journal's News Corp. (NASDAQ:NWS) and Dotdash Meredith owner IAC (NASDAQ:IAC) also started talks to establish a united front against Google (GOOG) (GOOGL) and Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT). The coalition explored suing Big Tech over "content scraping" and training their AI models on data produced by the organizations, but the NYT has reportedly dropped out of the group, suggesting that they might reach separate deals with tech giants that wield tremendous power over distribution and visibility. Check out recent subscriber numbers for the NYT and News Corp. in charts.
While corporations are debating their cash flow streams, the non-profit sector is having an easier time making decisions. In July, the Associated Press reached a two-year deal with OpenAI, the parent company of ChatGPT, by declaring the first official news-sharing agreement with an artificial intelligence firm. That direction could benefit others as they scale their offerings and revenue, such as News Corp Australia (NWS), which is now using a team of four staff to produce 3,000 articles per week using generative AI. The items cover daily topics like local weather, fuel prices, and traffic conditions, and have driven a surge in subscriptions and the subsidiary's best year in a decade.
Outlook: Consumers are also debating what artificial intelligence means for their media consumption. Should they be informed whether a robot wrote an article, or is the creative process continuing to evolve in a similar fashion to what algo-generated tunes and CGI did to the music and movie industries. Things get even more complicated if generative AI is only used to conduct research or help write an article, or prompt topics that enhance value and quality. Trust also plays a role here, but those lines might be lost or could one day be strengthened, depending on the future of brands and their audiences.
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