Global Publishing, Journalism Organizations Unite to Release Comprehensive Global Principles for Artificial Intelligence (AI)

Published: 06 Sept 2023

Arlington, VA – Today 26 organizations representing thousands of creative professionals around the world, including news, entertainment, magazine, and book publishing companies and the academic publishing sector, released Global Principles for Artificial Intelligence (AI). A first of their kind, these pioneering Global Principles provide guidance for the development, deployment, and regulation of Artificial Intelligence (AI) systems and applications to ensure business opportunities and innovation can thrive within an ethical and accountable framework. The Global Principles for AI are aimed at ensuring publishers’ continued ability to create and disseminate quality content, while facilitating innovation and the responsible development of trustworthy AI systems.

Addressing critical dimensions relating to intellectual property, transparency, accountability, quality and integrity, fairness, safety, design, and sustainable development, the Global Principles for AI mark an unprecedented collaboration that safeguards the interests of content creators, publishers, and consumers alike.

In the Principles, the organizations call for the responsible development and deployment of AI systems and applications, stating that these new tools must only be developed in accordance with established principles and laws that protect publishers’ intellectual property, brands, consumer relationships, and investments. The Principles state explicitly that AI systems’ “indiscriminate misappropriation of our intellectual property is unethical, harmful, and an infringement of our protected rights.”

News/Media Alliance President and CEO Danielle Coffey stated, “These Global AI Principles demonstrate the widespread agreement of publishers around the world that their intellectual property, which is the product of significant investments they have made in providing quality journalistic and creative content, should be recognized and respected. AI systems are only as good as the content they use to train them, and therefore developers of generative AI technology must recognize and compensate publishers accordingly for the tremendous value their content contributes to the development of these systems.”

Digital Content Next CEO Jason Kint stated, “For decades, our member companies have pursued opportunities to bring trusted news and entertainment to new platforms and new distribution channels enabled by the internet. We know from experience that principles like these are necessary to make certain those opportunities continue to proliferate and serve as a guidepost for businesses and policymakers who are wrestling with the ethical and legal questions surrounding AI.”

Angela Mills Wade, Executive Director of the European Publishers Council stated, “The Global Principles for AI pave the way for a powerful convergence of innovation and ethical development of AI. We invite regulators to establish legal frameworks which boost innovation and create new business opportunities, while ensuring that AI develops in a way that is responsible and sustainable for the publishing and journalism sectors in full respect of their intellectual property rights.”

Among other things, the Global AI Principles stipulate that developers, operators, and deployers of AI systems should:

• Respect intellectual property rights protecting the organizations’ investments in original content.
• Leverage efficient licensing models that can facilitate innovation through training of trustworthy and high-quality AI systems.
• Provide granular transparency to allow publishers to enforce their rights where their content is included in training datasets.
• Clearly attribute content to the original publishers of the content.
• Recognise publishers’ invaluable role in generating high-quality content for training, and also for surfacing and synthesizing.
• Comply with competition laws and principles and ensure that AI models are not used for anti-competitive purposes.
• Promote trusted and reliable sources of information and ensure that AI generated content is accurate, correct and complete.
• Not misrepresent original works.
• Respect the privacy of users that interact with them and fully disclose the use of their personal data in AI system design, training, and use.
• Align with human values and operate in accordance with global laws.

The full Global AI Principles, which can be found online, elaborate on each of the points above in greater detail.

Organizations signing onto the Global AI Principles include:

• AMI – Colombian News Media Association
• AMI – Asociación de Medios de Información (Spanish News Media Association)
• APImprensa, the Portuguese Press Editors and Publishers Association
• Asociación de Entidades Periodísticas Argentinas (Adepa)
• Association of Learned & Professional Society Publishers
• Association of Online Publishers (AOP) (UK)
• Associação Nacional de Jornais (Brazilian Newspaper Association) (ANJ)
• Czech Publishers’ Association
• Danish Media Association
• Digital Content Next
• European Magazine Media Association
• European Newspaper Publishers’ Association
• European Publishers Council
• FIPP
• Grupo de Diarios América
• Inter American Press Association
• Korean Association of Newspapers
• Magyar Lapkiadók Egyesülete (Hungarian Publishers’ Association)
• NDP Nieuwsmedia
• News/Media Alliance
• News Media Association
• News Media Canada
• News Media Europe
• News Media Finland
• News Publishers’ Association
• Nihon Shinbun Kyokai (The Japan Newspaper Publishers & Editors Association)
• Professional Publishers Association
• ARI, Asociación de Revistas (Spanish Magazine Media Association)
• STM
• TU – Swedish Media Publishers Association
• World Association of News Publishers (WAN-IFRA)

The Global AI Principles can be found on the News/Media Alliance website here.

The Principles are open to future signatories.

###

Media Contact:
Lindsey Loving
Director, Communications
lindsey@newsmediaalliance.org

The News/Media Alliance is a nonprofit organization representing more than 2,000 news and magazine media organizations and their multiplatform businesses in the United States and globally. Alliance members include print and digital publishers of original journalism. Headquartered just outside Washington, D.C., the association focuses on ensuring the future of journalism through communication, research, advocacy, and innovation. Information about the News/Media Alliance can be found at www.newsmediaalliance.org.