ChatGPT's Live News Feature Faces Resistance from Leading News Out

The AI News Challenge: OpenAI’s ChatGPT, along with tech giant Google, is set to access recent news, shifting from its past model where it pulled data only until September 2021. The UK’s Independent Publishers Alliance, however, is suggesting a quick halt on these bot crawls. Concerns arise because this could reduce direct traffic to news websites.

OpenAI aims to provide ChatGPT users with “current and authoritative information.”
This move might increase “zero-click searches,” where readers get details without visiting the original site.

To Block or Not to Block: Search engines have given options to publishers:

Google and Bing: Allowed publishers to disallow AI training while retaining their search ranking.
Bing Chat: Introduced by Microsoft, it offers links to sources, often leading to MSN.

Cost Concerns: Increased bot traffic could escalate hosting costs for smaller publishers.
Content Protection: To avoid potential content copying by AI.
Negotiation Power: Publishers might gain an edge in content licensing negotiations if they initially opt out.

The Broader Picture: Chris Dicker of the Independent Publishers Alliance mentions that tech companies have historically attracted publishers, only to later overshadow them, likening it to the ‘how to boil a frog’ strategy.

Major names like New York Times, Reuters, and The Athletic have blocked GPTBot.
On the other hand, outlets like The Daily Mirror and BBC haven’t restricted access.

The AI Strategist’s Take: Luke Budka, an AI strategist, emphasized the complexities involved for publishers. They need to be careful, for instance, to block only the AI-training bots like Google-Extended and not general search bots like Googlebot.

Final Thoughts: There’s no one-size-fits-all answer. Publishers must decide between potentially being compensated for their data or risking being left out of AI-generated content. For a comprehensive solution, stakeholders await potential discussions in the upcoming UK AI ethics conference