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Almost since the World Wide Web became a household technology, print media companies have been engaged in a somewhat one-sided battle with online publishers for readers and revenue. However, both now face the rise of generative AI that uses their content for data training, usually without consent or compensation. The UK Prime Minister wants competition in the digital market to be regulated to “rebalance the relationship” between online platforms and publishers, particularly in light of the AI ​​era.

Blighty boss Kier Starmer made the statement via a short article on The guardianstarting with some harsh comments on modern journalism, democracy and press freedom. But it was mainly AI and market legislation that he wanted to talk about.

“Artificial intelligence and the creative industries, which include the media, are at the heart of this government’s mission in terms of economic growth,” he stressed, specifying that he was not against the use of AI.

“To strike a balance in our industrial policy, we work closely with these sectors. We recognize the basic principle that publishers must control their work and be paid for their work, including when considering the role of ‘AI.’

Now you may be wondering what exactly he means about editors controlling their work and getting paid for it. After all, aren’t they already getting paid, whether through paper fees, subscriptions, or ad revenue?

Although Starmer doesn’t explicitly state this, I’m pretty sure he’s referring to AI companies remove published content to train their models. The media company has no control over how this data is then used and they are not paid for it unless everything has been approved first.

To counter this, the UK government wants to introduce new regulations and, according to the Prime Minister, “this landmark legislation will help rebalance the relationship between online platforms and those, like publishers, who depend on them. »

Simply called the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 (huge disclaimer on webpage) This is the UK government’s way, the proposed regulations are primarily aimed at improving consumer rights and cracking down on unfair practices, such as fake reviews and hidden charges. However, this also includes changes related to digital markets.

The measures will allow the UK Competition and Markets Authority to grant specific technology companies “strategic market status”, which would subject them to special codes of conduct, competition interventions and other regulations regarding mergers, etc.

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I suspect it’s the interventions part that would come into effect here, regarding scraping of AI data, as the legislation states that “the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) may make an intervention favorable to the competition… (after) following a PCI investigation. , the CMA considers that a factor or combination of factors relating to a relevant digital activity has an adverse effect on competition.

Personally, while I think it would be nicer to have regulations that could completely limit the practice of data scraping, having laws that can be used to slap AI companies that use content posted without consent is a good thing.

And since generative AI isn’t going away anytime soon, or at the very least, it won’t go away until billions of dollars are invested and manufactured, it’s important that the powers that be do it. something about all that.