News Corp and Meta Forge AI Content Licensing Agreement
News Corp’s global CEO has categorized news organizations as a critical “input” for artificial intelligence, coinciding with the media conglomerate’s signing of an AI content licensing arrangement with Meta, valued at up to US$50 million (A$71 million) annually.
In a buoyant presentation, Robert Thomson, the CEO of Rupert Murdoch’s enterprise, asserted that the “dependable” breaking news and insights from publications like the Australian, the Times of London, and Dow Jones are “unparalleled” as an “input” for AI.
The Meta agreement, disclosed by the Murdoch-owned Wall Street Journal earlier this week, is anticipated to span a minimum of three years. This deal will enable the parent company of Facebook and Instagram to extract News Corp’s content from the US and UK for training its AI products.
Included in the arrangement are prominent outlets such as the Journal and the New York Post; however, Australian publications like the Daily Telegraph and the Herald Sun are notably excluded.
“We’re essentially an input company,” Thomson remarked at the Morgan Stanley tech conference in San Francisco on Monday, preceding the momentous Meta deal.
“The imminent danger in the era of AI will predominantly impact what you might term output companies. We function as an input, much like semiconductors, data centers, and energy are inputs.”
“Consider the significance of breaking news and exclusive real estate insights,” he added.
Thomson, who finalized a US$250 million, five-year agreement with OpenAI in 2024, conveyed his belief that AI’s potential for news organizations far outweighs the associated risks.
He subscribed to a “woo or sue” philosophy, welcoming collaborations with AI firms while retaining the option to initiate legal action should they unlawfully utilize the publisher’s content.
Thomson stated that he enjoys a constructive rapport with Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, communicating regularly, as he does with Mark Zuckerberg, the head of Meta.
“Mark and I engage in dialogue quite regularly, utilizing WhatsApp, of course,” he noted with a hint of familiarity.
In Australia, however, News Corp has adopted a more combative stance towards social media platforms, attributing them blame for societal cohesion challenges worldwide.
Michael Miller, executive chair of News Corp Australia, urged the media community to unite against platforms and AI companies that seek to exploit content without compensation.
Embracing AI technology in journalism, News Corp Australia has rolled out an internal AI tool titled “NewsGPT,” albeit sparking some unease among journalists regarding its implications.
The media landscape perceives the advent of artificial intelligence and its integration into search engines as a significant threat to the viability of professional journalism, particularly as Google has incorporated AI in search functionalities, consequently diminishing traffic to news websites.
Notably, the 2024 partnership with ChatGPT creator OpenAI facilitated the introduction of news content from the Journal, the Post, the Times, and the Sunday Times to the AI platform.
In contrast, other publications, including the New York Times, have pursued a more litigious route: suing OpenAI and Microsoft, the startup’s principal supporter, over the utilization of their content for training generative AI models.
Last year, Meta announced a multibillion-dollar investment in AI infrastructure, including a deal worth up to US$6 billion with Corning, a manufacturer of intricate materials for telecommunications and electronics, aimed at supplying fiber optic cables for its data centers.
Moreover, Guardian Media Group entered into a strategic alliance with OpenAI in February 2025.
Source link: Theguardian.com.
