US lawmakers are sounding the alarm over the potential impact of generative AI on the journalism and content creation industries. A group of eight Democratic senators, led by Senator Amy Klobuchar, has called on the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and Justice Department to investigate generative AI products, such as ChatGPT, for potential antitrust violations.
In a letter to the agencies, the lawmakers expressed concern that the introduction of generative AI features by dominant online platforms is threatening the livelihoods of journalists and content creators. These features, which summarize or regurgitate online content from other sources, are keeping users on the search platform, where the platform can profit from advertising and data collection.
The lawmakers argue that this practice could be considered “exclusionary conduct or an unfair method of competition” under antitrust laws, as it deprives original content creators of revenue and traffic. Furthermore, the use of AI to scrape news sites without directing users to the original source could also be a violation of copyright laws.
This is not the first time lawmakers have raised concerns about the impact of generative AI on creative industries. In July, several senators introduced the COPIED Act, aimed at combating and monitoring the rise of AI-generated content and deepfakes. Another bill, the NO FAKES Act, would make it illegal to create digital recreations of a person’s likeness or voice without their consent.
The New York Times has already reported instances of ChatGPT providing users with near-verbatim excerpts from paywalled articles. OpenAI has acknowledged that it is impossible to train generative AI without using copyrighted materials, highlighting the need for greater scrutiny of these technologies.
