As 2024 winds down, the relationship between AI and journalism is heating up with new lawsuits, licensing deals and AI usage in newsroom practice. Here’s a summary of the latest developments.

Legal Battles

Lawsuits over AI’s use of copyrighted content are heating up. In Canada, OpenAI faces a joint suit from five major news companies, accusing the company of unauthorized use of published news articles to train its AI models, as the New York Times reports. 

Another lawsuit between Dow Jones and Perplexity also highlights the tension between media companies and generative AI firms, with the latter criticizing Dow Jones’ accusation as shortsighted.

On the other hand, Reuters reported OpenAI’s recent victory in a lawsuit brought by news outlets Raw Story and AlterNet, as the court believed the outlet’s claims didn’t show concrete harm or evidence. The decision leaves room for broader legal questions about AI and copyright.

Let’s work together

While legal arguments continue to dominate headlines, another narrative is unfolding: newsrooms and tech giants are increasingly forging partnerships. Meta has brokered a deal with Reuters with the use of news content to power real time answers in its AI chatbot. This agreement, reported by Axios, is the first of its kind for Meta. The verge reported a deal between OpenAI and Dotdash Meredith, publisher of People, Investopedia,  which will help upgrade ad targeting technology, hopefully finding potential customers without using cookies.  Are the partnerships with media giants giving OpenAI an edge over competitors? TechCrunch dug deeper into the ripple effects earlier this year, as some rivals claim these deals could stifle innovation.

On the content protection side, major UK outlets like Sky, The Guardian and the Financial Times have also jumped into AI partnerships with ProRata.ai, a L.A.-based tech company focus on compensating for copyrighted material used for AI training,  according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Unlimited Uses of AI 

New trends indicate the adoption of AI tools in newsrooms worldwide is advancing at a speed beyond our imagination. In the UK, publisher Reach plc is using AI to streamline content distribution and amplification, according to the World Association of News Publishers; In the Philippines, journalist Jaemark Tordecilla explains his reporting process on how to use refined chatbots for a more readable public spending document. In Bangladesh, TBS reporting team found a different dynamic: while individual journalists are embracing AI, newsrooms themselves lag. 

A report from Press Gazette, citing Enders Analysis, examples some valuable AI usage including creating audio editions, translating and archival digitization. Furthermore, a study from Hannes Cools and Nicholas Diakopoulos examines AI’s role in reshaping editorial workflows. Read their findings in “Uses of Generative AI in the Newsroom”.

AI Experiments

While AI in newsrooms is making strides, is the target audience satisfied with the outcome? A survey in the UK initiated by the Department of Media and Communication concluded AI-generated articles less comprehensible than manually written ones, citing poor word choice and handling of numbers, despite equal ratings for narrative structure and flow. The Washington Post has launched “Ask The Post AI,” a generative AI tool using its journalism to provide summary answers and curated results, as part of its efforts to enhance user experience and reach new audiences. In other news, The Wall Street Journal is testing AI-generated article summaries in a “Key Points” format, with editor-reviewed bullet points aimed at enhancing reader engagement. 

The Financial Times is advancing AI integration with its AI Playground, enabling staff to experiment with content generation and data-driven journalism while upholding editorial integrity.

What’s next?

Our own Rahul Bhargava writes in Medium that news organizations must balance innovation with responsibility to uphold journalism’s core values in an AI-driven landscape. Brazilian investigative news outlet Aos Fatos (“To the Facts” in Portuguese) has built a fact-checking chatbot drawing from their archive using GenAI. Legal disputes underscore the ongoing copyright issues. Meanwhile emerging partnerships hint at a future of collaboration between tech firms and newsrooms. Microsoft and OpenAI announced that they’re giving a mixture of cash and software credits worth $10 million to some newsrooms to try out AI tools in their newsrooms. The Verge reports that the first round of funding will go to Newsday, The Minnesota Star Tribune, The Philadelphia Inquirer, Chicago Public Media, and The Seattle Times.