Did you notice the latest terms and conditions change on the New York Times’ website? Most of us just click ‘accept’ and move on. But this time, there’s an interesting twist: the Times says no to artificial intelligence (AI) using its content.
Here’s why this matters: AI systems like ChatGPT produce content based on stuff they’ve “read” online. For instance, if you tell ChatGPT to write a thank-you note, it will come up with one using everything it knows. The problem is, this AI uses many writers’ work to produce its own content, but the original writers don’t get credit or pay.
Robin Burke, an expert from CU Boulder’s College of Media, said that writers and artists are realizing AI needs their work. Yet, they’re not getting anything in return. He thinks creators should decide if AI can use their work without paying.
Burke knows his stuff. His dad owned a newspaper, and he’s studying how AI might affect the news industry. He’s concerned about who’s benefiting from AI and who’s losing out.
The New York Times is setting a trend by stopping AI from using its content. They are one of the big players in the news world, but smaller newspapers face the same decisions. These smaller papers have lost money because of the internet. In the past, when the internet was new, newspapers thought they could give away news for free online and make money from digital ads. This didn’t work out for many.
Burke mentioned that when the internet started, everyone had wild ideas. Some worked, some didn’t. With AI, we still don’t know what the best approach is. A perfect example? Just a month before the Times made its decision, the Associated Press (AP) allowed ChatGPT to use its news archive since 1985.
Burke explained that AP is different from the Times. They mainly make money by selling their content to other publishers. Maybe ChatGPT chose AP because they thought other newspapers might stop them in the future.
What does this mean for the future of news? AI can do a lot, like scanning government files for big news. But should we let AI write the news stories? If AI writes, we might miss the human touch in news. Burke thinks it’s crucial to make sure AI-provided news is accurate and not just what people want to hear.
Burke believes this is an important area to keep researching. We need to understand AI’s role in the future of news and make the right choices.
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Source: University of Colorado at Boulder .
