Hearts & Minds: Will media deals with AI giants change the reputation management landscape?

The AI copyright row rumbles on. Proposed UK legislation allowing tech companies to use copyrighted material to train their models is stuck, moving backwards and forwards between the Commons and Lords, amid calls for original content creators to be afforded greater protections for their livelihoods. The suggested statute has become akin to a ping-pong ball, batted back and forth, as lawmakers try to balance the interests of the tech and creative sectors.

There is another, practical aspect to LLMs accessing material which directly affects those charged with managing comms and reputations. It is whether the AI engine is allowed to simply lift copy or whether permission is denied.

At present, the news media is divided, with some organisations entering into licensing agreements with the AI developers and others not wishing to trade. There are big hitting publishers on each side. Financial Times, Le Monde, The Atlantic, WIRED, Hearst, News Corp, Axel Springer, AP News, Time magazine all have deals in place with Open AI. While The Guardian, New York Times, Canadian Media Coalition, Asian News International, Ziff Davis currently do not. This list is from ChatGPT and is far from comprehensive and, given it came from AI in the first place, may not be entirely accurate.

Nevertheless, it gives a good idea. So, the next time the FT or Sunday Times is asking difficult questions your answers are going into the AI ether for eternity, while if The Guardian or New York Times is calling, they are not. How long that difference remains may well come down to when, not if, depending on the regulations and if it makes financial sense to succumb and trade, as some view AI, with the devil.

So, you can relax if The Guardian or New York Times is proving awkward. What you say may not be reproduced as gospel, regurgitated in someone else’s work, courtesy of ChatGPT. That is the theory. But those and the other major titles and platforms that are proudly holding out still carry huge weight and influence, with vast digital audiences. Whatever you say will be out there and repeated across social media. You should assume your stakeholders, those that matter the most, will almost certainly see it.

It is best not to allow yourself to be swayed by the split. Adhere to one policy, which is to say only what you know to be true.

Chris Blackhurst is one of the UK’s foremost business journalists. He was previously Editor of The Independent and City Editor of the Evening Standard.