Publishers' associations demand rules for the use of AI with journalistic content
AI providers should be required to follow clear rules when dealing with journalistic content. This is what publishers« associations in German-speaking countries are calling for. In their »Zurich Declaration,” they list five such rules.
What ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and co. generate is partly based on journalistic content. Access to this content is "usually without the consent of the rights holders, without transparency and without remuneration", as the Swiss Media Publishers Association VSM writes.
The fact that AI models are fed with journalistic products without clear rules is not only a thorn in the side of the local association, but also the publisher organizations from Germany, Austria and Luxembourg. At their annual DACHLUX conference, the associations therefore adopted the "Zurich Declaration". In it, they call on politicians and AI providers to act: they should create clearer rules for the use of AI with journalistic content.
What is the "Zurich Declaration" about?
Specifically, this concerns obligations in the areas of transparency, disclosure of sources, remuneration, responsibility and equal treatment of media. According to the paper, the demands stand for fair competition, which will continue to guarantee the supply of information to society in a responsible and legally compliant manner in the future. In the press release, the associations warn: "Without clear rules for the handling of AI with journalistic content, the journalism business model will erode. Intellectual property must be fully respected and the copyright protection of journalistic content must also be guaranteed in the digital age."
The five rules of the "Zurich Declaration" in full:
- Journalistic content may only be used in compliance with the rights of the copyright holder and with full transparency regarding the type of use.
- The sources of this information must be explicitly stated and linked in all search results and downstream offers.
- The platforms must adequately remunerate the use of journalistic content. This should apply to both training and all techniques for the further development of generative AI applications such as RAG (Retrieval Augmented Generation).
- The platforms and media publishers must enter into a dialog in order to find joint solutions against deliberate misinformation and disinformation for the purpose of manipulating users. International online platforms must take responsibility for their influence in the public sphere.
- International online platforms must respect journalistic plurality and remain neutral towards it; they may not privilege their own content or the content of individual media; this does not affect the priority of content from editorially independent media that adhere to recognized editorial standards over content that does not meet such standards.
(René Jaun/dda/swi)
