News Corp boss Michael Miller says IP rights must be protected amid rise of AI

The Albanese government is under increasing pressure to address the unchecked momentum of generative artificial intelligence.

Communications Minister Michelle Rowland. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Martin Ollman

The Albanese government is under increasing pressure to ­address the unchecked momentum of generative artificial intelligence, and its potentially grave consequences for news media companies.

The intellectual property of news publishers is being ­“harvested” at a steadily increasing rate in the training of AI ­engines, with a method for media outlets to be compensated for the use of their content still to be formulated.

On Thursday, Labor insisted it was treating the matter seriously, with a spokesman for Communications Minister Michelle Rowland saying talks with publishers was ongoing. “The government has engaged with digital platforms and news media companies to understand the implications of AI for industry,” the spokesman said.

News Corp Australasia executive chairman Michael Miller. Picture: Liam Kidston

Earlier this week, Nine newspapers reported that the ­Coalition had outlined its ­position on the issue, with opposition communications spokesman David Coleman urging the government to act quickly.

“The technology has this ­capacity to go beyond what ­humans can understand … it is going to be really important that there is an AI framework where we say we decide how AI works in our country,’’ he said.

Mr Coleman and fellow Liberal Paul Fletcher – communications minister in the Morrison government – said the party was willing to take a bipartisan ­approach to the issue given the significant impact the technology will have on Australian industries, including the media.

Welcoming the bipartisan recognition that AI companies should pay for the content they use to train their machines, News Corp Australasia executive chairman Michael Miller said: “We need to move forward so that content creators are paid by AI platforms to protect their rights, and rules need to be set that protect each country’s unique creative output.

“Australia has strong laws that protect the rights of musicians, authors, filmmakers and other content creators, and we should resist any calls for changes that could dilute those rights to bring them into line with those nations which have weaker protections.”

Last month, News Corp’s global chief executive, Robert Thomson, told a news conference in New York that “the quest to protect provenance has entered a fresh phase”. “Our content is being harvested and scraped and otherwise ingested to train AI engines … our content will be synthesised and presented as distinct when it is actually an ­extracting of editorial ­essence,” Mr Thomson said.

News Corp is the publisher of The Australian.