NYT, Economist among publishers joining coalition to curb unpaid AI use - Reuters

A coalition of more than 80 publishers across 20 countries has expanded its membership in an effort to establish industry-wide standards regarding the use of journalistic content by artificial intelligence firms. Recent additions to the group include The New York Times, The Economist, Agence France-Presse, The Atlantic, and Brazil’s National Association of Newspapers. These organizations join founding members such as the Financial Times, the BBC, and the Associated Press.

The coalition, known as the Standards for Publisher Usage Rights (SPUR), was launched in February and is funded entirely by its members. Its primary objective is to prevent artificial intelligence companies from utilizing or profiting from copyrighted news content without authorization. To achieve this, the group is developing technical systems designed to help publishers track and control how their material is accessed by AI models, while also facilitating formal licensing agreements.

This expansion comes amid a broader trend of legal and strategic challenges directed at AI developers. Publishers are increasingly seeking to protect their intellectual property as large language models continue to be trained on vast datasets of existing media. Representatives for the new members have emphasized that technological advancement and the protection of intellectual property are not mutually exclusive and must be balanced to ensure a sustainable future for journalism.

The push for standardized usage rights coincides with ongoing litigation within the industry. Earlier in October, USA Today and several of its affiliated newspapers filed a lawsuit against OpenAI, alleging copyright infringement. Similar legal actions have been initiated by various news organizations and authors against OpenAI and its backer, Microsoft, asserting that the unauthorized use of their work to train AI systems violates copyright protections.