UK prime minister reckons new laws will help publishers fight back against unapproved AI data scraping

pcgamer.com:

Almost since the World Wide Web became a household technology, print media companies have been fighting a somewhat one-sided battle with online publishers for readers and revenue. However, both now are facing the rise of generative AI scaping their content for data training, typically without consent and remuneration. The UK's prime minister wants competition in the digital market to be legislated to «rebalance the relationship» between online platforms and publishers, especially in light of the era of AI.

Kier Starmer, Blighty's big boss, made the statement via a short post on The Guardian, kicking things off with some stern comments about modern journalism, democracy, and press freedom. However, it was AI and market legislation that he really wanted to talk about.

«Both artificial intelligence and the creative industries—which include news media—are central to this government’s driving mission on economic growth,» he noted, making it clear that he wasn't against the use of AI.

«To strike balance in our industrial policy, we are working closely with these sectors. We recognise the basic principle that publishers should have control over and seek payment for their work, including when thinking about the role of AI.»

Now, you might be wondering what exactly he means about publishers having control of their work and getting paid for it. After all, don't they already get paid, either through paper fees, subscriptions, and advertising revenue?

Although Starmer doesn't explicitly state this, I'm pretty sure he's referring to AI companies scraping published content to train their models. The media company doesn't have control over how that data then gets used and it doesn't get paid for it unless it's all been approved beforehand.

To counter this, the UK government wants to introduce new regulations, and according to the prime minister, "[t]his landmark legislation will help rebalance the relationship between online platforms and those, such as publishers, who rely on