<\/p>\n
News Corp chief executive Robert Thomson has set out a blunt approach to AI companies seeking to use the publisher\u2019s journalism as training data \u2013 \u201ca woo and a sue\u201d.<\/p>\n
Speaking at the Morgan Stanley media conference, Thomson described a strategy that mixes commercial partnerships with legal enforcement. \u201cWe\u2019d like you to be our partner. But if you\u2019re stealing our stuff, we are going to sue you \u2026 we\u2019re coming for you. I mean, we can see you doing it. We\u2019ll get round to you eventually. So there\u2019ll be a discount for those who hand themselves in, and there\u2019ll be a penalty for those that resist,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
News Corp has been actively pursuing paid agreements for its content. Subsequent to Thomson’s appearance at the Morgan Stanley event, the company announced a three-year deal with Meta worth up to $50m a year to allow use of material from its US and UK titles to train AI systems. This sits alongside a 2024 agreement with OpenAI.<\/p>\n
Thomson argued that premium titles remain essential to AI developers seeking reliable inputs. He told delegates that vertical specialists are approaching News Corp because the \u201cdata and the information and the news that they input has to be reliable, and it\u2019s hard to beat the Times of London or The Australian or Dow Jones\u201d.<\/p>\n
He has paired commercial outreach with legal threats. In earlier remarks reported by TheWrap, Thomson said of companies using public data without authorisation: \u201cIf you have received stolen goods, we intend to pursue you relentlessly.\u201d <\/p>\n
That position builds on comments in 2024 about preferring agreements to default litigation, alongside longstanding warnings about generative AI\u2019s capacity to \u201crecycle itself in what you might call endless, perfidious permutations\u201d.<\/p>\n
Thomson\u2019s contract was recently extended through June 2030, as the company doubles down on intellectual property and core assets including Dow Jones. <\/p>\n
He also promoted the launch of the California Post, a Los Angeles-focused edition of the New York Post, telling delegates that app downloads \u201care twice what we thought\u201d and that further metrics would be shared on the next earnings call.<\/p>\n