What just happened? A coalition of publishers, including The New York Times and The Guardian, has launched a campaign demanding the US government to hold Big Tech accountable for using creative content to develop artificial intelligence products. Organized by the News/Media Alliance, the “Support Responsible AI” campaign accuses tech giants of exploiting copyrighted material without compensating the creators.

The campaign’s website frames this practice as a direct threat to content creators’ livelihoods. Accompanying the initiative are bold red-and-white advertisements featuring slogans like “Protect Jobs from AI Theft,” “AI Steals from You Too,” and “Keep Watch on AI.” The alliance stated that these ads will appear in hundreds of news publications and digital platforms nationwide in the coming days. Other participants in the coilition include The Atlantic, Seattle Times, and Politico owner Axel Springer.

The movement presents three demands for policymakers. First, it calls for legislation that requires Big Tech and AI companies to fairly compensate creators when using their work to train their AI systems. Second, it seeks mandatory transparency in the sourcing and attribution of AI-generated content. Lastly, it urges action to prevent monopolistic practices that could stifle competition and coerce smaller players in the industry.

President and CEO of the News/Media Alliance Danielle Coffey emphasized that the news media industry is not opposed to AI technology but advocates for a balanced system that ensures responsible innovation.

“We want an ecosystem where AI provides a return to the quality content that fuels its intelligence,” she said.

The campaign emerged from the escalating tension between media organizations and AI companies. Recently, OpenAI released an image-generation tool that mimics iconic anime styles, such as those of Studio Ghibli, drawing backlash from artists on social media. Many artists have criticized AI tools for appropriating their work without consent, with some even leaving platforms like X after they discovered that the site had used their posts to train AI models.

Similar disputes have arisen in other corners of the internet. For example, last year on BlueSky, users criticized a Hugging Face machine learning librarian for releasing a dataset derived from publicly available BlueSky posts to train AI models.

The conflict between major publishers and AI companies is nothing new. In December 2023, The New York Times sued OpenAI and Microsoft, accusing them of using its articles without authorization to train AI models. A federal judge allowed the case to proceed, rejecting OpenAI’s attempt to dismiss it.

The US campaign is an echo of efforts abroad. In February, several prominent UK newspapers launched an initiative against unauthorized AI training on copyrighted materials. Their “MAKE IT FAIR” campaign featured bold front-page statements urging readers to support protections for creative content against unlicensed use by AI systems.