InPublishing: Global publishing and journalism organisations unite on AI

The News Media Association says it is one of 26 organisations representing thousands of creative professionals around the world, including news, entertainment, magazine, and book publishing companies and the academic publishing sector, which released the Global Principles for Artificial Intelligence last week.

A first of their kind, says the NMA, these global principles provide guidance for the development, deployment, and regulation of AI systems and applications to ensure business opportunities and innovation can thrive within an ethical and accountable framework. The Global Principles for AI are aimed at ensuring publishers’ continued ability to create and disseminate quality content, while facilitating innovation and the responsible development of trustworthy AI systems.

Addressing critical dimensions relating to intellectual property, transparency, accountability, quality and integrity, fairness, safety, design, and sustainable development, the Global Principles for AI mark an unprecedented collaboration that safeguards the interests of content creators, publishers, and consumers alike.

In the principles, the organizations call for the responsible development and deployment of AI systems and applications, stating that these new tools must only be developed in accordance with established principles and laws that protect publishers’ intellectual property, brands, consumer relationships, and investments. The principles state explicitly that AI systems’ “indiscriminate misappropriation of our intellectual property is unethical, harmful, and an infringement of our protected rights.”

News/Media Alliance president and CEO Danielle Coffey stated: “These Global AI Principles demonstrate the widespread agreement of publishers around the world that their intellectual property, which is the product of significant investments they have made in providing quality journalistic and creative content, should be recognized and respected. AI systems are only as good as the content they use to train them, and therefore developers of generative AI technology must recognize and compensate publishers accordingly for the tremendous value their content contributes to the development of these systems.”

Digital Content Next CEO Jason Kint stated: “For decades, our member companies have pursued opportunities to bring trusted news and entertainment to new platforms and new distribution channels enabled by the internet. We know from experience that principles like these are necessary to make certain those opportunities continue to proliferate and serve as a guidepost for businesses and policymakers who are wrestling with the ethical and legal questions surrounding AI.”

Angela Mills Wade, executive director of the European Publishers Council stated: “The Global Principles for AI pave the way for a powerful convergence of innovation and ethical development of AI. We invite regulators to establish legal frameworks which boost innovation and create new business opportunities, while ensuring that AI develops in a way that is responsible and sustainable for the publishing and journalism sectors in full respect of their intellectual property rights.”

NMA chief executive Owen Meredith said: “The rapid development of AI creates enormous opportunities as well as challenges for content creators such as news publishers. The Global Principles for AI are a very welcome signal to regulators and legislators of the critical importance in creating an ecosystem which rewards the creation of content rather than penalising those who invest in it. They also recognise the importance of international cooperation where this technology does not recognise national borders.”

Among other things, the Global AI Principles stipulate that developers, operators, and deployers of AI systems should:

Respect intellectual property rights protecting the organizations’ investments in original content.
Leverage efficient licensing models that can facilitate innovation through training of trustworthy and high-quality AI systems.
Provide granular transparency to allow publishers to enforce their rights where their content is included in training datasets.
Clearly attribute content to the original publishers of the content.
Recognise publishers’ invaluable role in generating high-quality content for training, and also for surfacing and synthesizing.
Comply with competition laws and principles and ensure that AI models are not used for anti-competitive purposes.
Promote trusted and reliable sources of information and ensure that AI generated content is accurate, correct and complete.
Not misrepresent original works.
Respect the privacy of users that interact with them and fully disclose the use their personal data in AI system design, training, and use.
Align with human values and operate in accordance with global laws.

Organizations signing onto the Global AI Principles include: