The publisher of The New York Times, A.G. Sulzberger, has warned that artificial intelligence (AI) companies posed a growing threat to the future of journalism by using publishers’ content without adequate compensation.
Speaking on Monday at the 77th World News Media Congress organised by the World Association of News Publishers in Marseille, France, Sulzberger said AI firms were benefiting from journalism while weakening the news organisations responsible for producing original reporting.
According to him, the increasing use of AI-powered chatbots and search tools was reducing traffic to news websites and undermining the revenue needed to sustain quality journalism.
“The companies driving A.I., already among the richest and most powerful in human history, are consolidating their outsize control over our data and our attention.
“At the same time, they are failing to embrace a core responsibility that comes with this power, to ensure the public has access to trustworthy news and information,” he said.
Sulzberger argued that AI companies were using copyrighted content from news organisations to train their systems and generate responses for users, often without permission or compensation.
“As a result, I fear we are careening toward a future with fewer and fewer journalists to do the expensive, difficult work of original reporting, going to places, talking to people, digging up information, covering important issues and events, providing context and analysis, investigating the powerful,” he said.
The New York Times publisher stressed that journalism remains vital to democracy and public accountability, urging news organisations to defend their intellectual property rights and advocate for stronger legal protections.
He noted that AI models depend on four critical resources; talent, computing infrastructure, energy and data, and questioned why technology companies were willing to pay for engineers, data centres and electricity but often resist compensating publishers for the content used to train their systems.
“The word itself seems almost designed to make creative and expressive work sound trivial, a ubiquitous commodity. A.I. companies take ‘data’ without consent or compensation. Their explanations for the theft keep shifting. They say innovation requires it.
“They insist they’re just taking facts, which no one can own. They complain that deals take too long and cost too much.
“They claim the ‘fair use’ doctrine allows them to take content for free anyway. Sometimes they even invoke national security , they warn that if A.I. companies are forced to pay, America will lose the technology race to China,” Sulzberger said.
He also called on media organisations to embrace artificial intelligence responsibly while maintaining editorial oversight and continuing to invest in original reporting.
Sulzberger’s remarks come amid a growing legal battle between news publishers and AI developers over the use of copyrighted material for training artificial intelligence systems. The New York Times is among several media organisations currently pursuing legal action against AI companies over the alleged unauthorised use of their content.
LEADERSHIP reports that the debate over AI and copyright has become one of the most significant issues facing the global media industry, as publishers seek to balance technological innovation with the need to protect the economic foundations of journalism.
