Australian news publishers are now starting to chase AI deals
The Guardian and News Corp have each been engaged in discussions with AI developers over compensation, while leadership at Nine has opened the door to talks.
As the clock winds down on the deals Australian news publishers struck with Google and Meta in 2021 under the government's media bargaining code, the focus of the global publishing industry has shifted away from social media and search to a new tech threat: artificial intelligence.
While News Corp’s global CEO Robert Thompson has declared his intentions to seek payment from generative AI platforms for the use of its content around the world, some of the Australia’s largest media publishers, including those based in Australia, have been slow to show their hands.
Guardian News & Media, the global publisher of The Guardian in the UK, the US, Australia and more recently Europe, has held discussions with “a wide range” of developers working on large language AI models, a spokesperson for the company said on Wednesday.
In Australia, media executives have proceeded with a little more caution. The ABC has blocked OpenAI’s web crawler from scraping its site, after the Microsoft-backed company in early August introduced the opt-out function to website operators by way of a robots.txt file code injection. An ABC spokesperson wouldn’t be drawn on whether the broadcaster might yet pursue a commercial agreement.
