Australian news media pursue payment from Meta for using their content to train AI

Australian media companies may demand compensation from Meta for using online news sources to train generative AI, researchers suggest. Meta's recent decision not to pay for news in Australia led to calls for its inclusion under the news media bargaining code. Under this code, Meta would be required to negotiate with news media publishers, pay for news content on its platforms, or face fines amounting to 10% of its annual Australian revenue.

Tech companies like Meta have been utilising massive amounts of online information to train their generative AI models. Meta stated in its Llama 2 model discussion paper that it used "publicly available online sources," without specifying if this included online news.

The New York Times sued AI company OpenAI for using millions of its articles without permission to train chatbots. OpenAI claimed the newspaper "hacked" their AI systems to create misleading evidence for the case.

Prof Monica Attard and Dr Michael Davis from the University of Technology’s Centre for Media Transition see potential parallels between the news media bargaining code and the challenges posed by AI technologies. They believe the code could facilitate payments for using news to train AI models. Reset Australia argued for a new approach tailored to AI, rather than fitting it under the existing code.

The attorney general established a group to explore copyright and AI issues last December. At an industry roundtable, differing opinions were voiced, with some advocating for exceptions in copyright for AI text and data mining, while others pushed for content licensing and compensating rights holders. The group has yet to convene on the matter.

Australian news media pursue payment from Meta for using their content to train AI

- CyberBeat