--- title: Experts Warn Congress of Dangers AI Poses to Journalism description: At a Senate hearing, experts said AI is hurting local news, causing intellectual property disputes, and spreading misinformation. canonical: https://time.com/6554118/congress-ai-journalism-hearing/ author: Will Henshall article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2024-01-10T22:13:16.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T08:53:13.353Z article:section: Politics og:title: Experts Warn Congress of Dangers AI Poses to Journalism og:description: At a Senate hearing, experts said AI is hurting local news, causing intellectual property disputes, and spreading misinformation. og:url: https://time.com/6554118/congress-ai-journalism-hearing/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt840775a3072b5e78/698a43bdcabb1de0c3e521be/GettyImages-1915739103.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1024 og:image:height: 576 og:image:alt: Senate Judiciary Committee Holds Hearing Artificial Intelligence And The Future Of Journalism og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Experts Warn Congress of Dangers AI Poses to Journalism twitter:description: At a Senate hearing, experts said AI is hurting local news, causing intellectual property disputes, and spreading misinformation. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt840775a3072b5e78/698a43bdcabb1de0c3e521be/GettyImages-1915739103.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Experts Warn Congress of Dangers AI Poses to Journalism > Sponsored content. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters.  by [Will Henshall](https://time.com/author/will-henshall/)  ## Will Henshall Jan 10, 2024 10:13 PM UTC  Ranking member Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) and chairman Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) are seen at the start of a Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Privacy, Technology, and the Law hearing on "Artificial Intelligence and The Future Of Journalism" at the U.S. Capitol on January 10, 2024 in Washington, DC. Ranking member Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) and chairman Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) are seen at the start of a Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Privacy, Technology, and the Law hearing on "Artificial Intelligence and The Future Of Journalism" at the U.S. Capitol on January 10, 2024 in Washington, DC. Kent Nishimura—Getty Images  by [Will Henshall](https://time.com/author/will-henshall/)  ## Will Henshall Jan 10, 2024 10:13 PM UTC AI poses a grave threat to journalism, experts warned Congress at a hearing on Wednesday. Media executives and academic experts testified before the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Privacy, Technology, and the Law about how AI is contributing to the big tech-fueled decline of journalism. They also talked about intellectual property issues arising from AI models being trained on the work of journalists, and raised alarms about the increasing dangers of AI-powered misinformation. “The rise of big tech has been directly responsible for the decline in local news,” said Senator Richard Blumenthal, a Connecticut Democrat and chair of the subcommittee. “First, Meta, Google and [OpenAI](https://time.com/6342827/ceo-of-the-year-2023-sam-altman/) are using the hard work of newspapers and authors to train their AI models without compensation or credit. Adding insult to injury, those models are then used to compete with newspapers and broadcasters, cannibalizing readership and revenue from the journalistic institutions that generate the content in the first place.” ## Big tech, AI, and the decline of local news Tech companies and the news industry have been in conflict since the rise of digital platforms over a decade ago, which has resulted in tech platforms profiting as many news organizations have gone out of business. Researchers at the Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications at Northwestern University [found](https://localnewsinitiative.northwestern.edu/projects/state-of-local-news/2023/report/) that the U.S. has lost almost a third of its newspapers and almost two-thirds of its newspaper journalists since 2005. Countries around the world are starting to take action to force big tech to support their local journalism industries. In June 2023, Canada passed a [law](https://www.canada.ca/en/canadian-heritage/services/online-news.html) requiring tech companies to pay news outlets for any content featured on their platforms. Australia previously [passed](https://www.acma.gov.au/news-media-bargaining-code) a similar law in 2021\. In the U.S., comparable legislation has been [proposed](https://www.judiciary.senate.gov/press/releases/senate-judiciary-committee-advances-bipartisan-bill-to-preserve-strong-independent-journalism-and-news-organizations) by Senators Amy Klobuchar, aDemocrat from Minnesota, and John Kennedy, a Republican from Louisiana,both of whom are members of the Subcommittee on Privacy, Technology, and the Law. “Over the last several years, there have been countless studies, investigations, and litigation by the DOJ and the FTC in the past two administrations that have found anti-competitive conduct by the monopoly distributors of news content,” Danielle Coffey, president and CEO of trade association News Media Alliance, said at the hearing. “This marketplace imbalance will only be increased by \[generative AI\].” ## Coming copyright battles Generative AI systems—ones that are capable of generating text, images, or other media—must be trained on vast amounts of data. In order to secure access to high-quality text data, prominent AI developer OpenAI has partnered with the Associated Press, a U.S.-based nonprofit news agency, gaining access to part of AP’s archive in exchange for use of OpenAI’s products. OpenAI has a similar partnership with Axel Springer, a German multinational media company, as part of which ChatGPT will summarize articles by Axel Springer-owned news outlets and provide links and attribution. But not all news outlets have come to similar deals. On Dec. 27 2023, the New York _Times_ [sued](https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/27/business/media/new-york-times-open-ai-microsoft-lawsuit.html) OpenAI and its major investor and partner, Microsoft. The [lawsuit](https://nytco-assets.nytimes.com/2023/12/NYT%5FComplaint%5FDec2023.pdf) argues that OpenAI’s models were trained on the New York _Times’_ and offer a competing product, causing “billions of dollars in statutory and actual damages.” OpenAI responded with a [blog post](https://openai.com/blog/openai-and-journalism) on Jan. 8 2024, in which it contested the _Times’_ legal claims and noted the various actions it has taken to support a health news ecosystem. The New York _Times_ lawsuit is the highest-profile copyright case of many launched against AI developers. In July 2023, comedian Sarah Silverman and authors Christopher Golden and Richard Kadrey [sued](https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/10/arts/sarah-silverman-lawsuit-openai-meta.html) OpenAI and Meta for training their AI models on her writing without their permission. And in January 2023, artists [Kelly McKernan](https://time.com/collection/time100-ai/6309445/kelly-mckernan/), Sarah Andersen, and Karla Orti sued Midjourney, Stability AI, and DeviantArt—companies that develop image generating AI models—again for training their AI models on their work. In October, U.S. District Judge William Orrick [dismissed](https://www.reuters.com/legal/litigation/judge-pares-down-artists-ai-copyright-lawsuit-against-midjourney-stability-ai-2023-10-30/) parts of the lawsuit, and the plaintiffs amended and resubmitted the lawsuit in November. Generative AI tools have been built with “stolen goods,” argued Roger Lynch, CEO of Condé Nast, a media company that owns publications including the _New Yorker_, _Wired_, and _GQ_, who called at the hearing for “congressional intervention” to ensure that AI developers pay publishers for their content. “The amount of time it would take to litigate, appeal, go back to the courts appeal, maybe ultimately make it to the Supreme Court to settle between now and then there'll be many, many media companies that would go out of business,” he said. However, Curtis LeGeyt, president and CEO of trade association National Association of Broadcasters, said talk of legislation was “premature,” contending that current copyright protections should apply. “If we have clarity that current law applies to generative AI, let's let marketplace work,” he said. ## Misinformation concerns LeGeyt also warned the Senators about the dangers that AI-generated misinformation poses to journalism. “The use of AI to doctor, manipulate, or misappropriate the likeness of trusted radio or television personalities risks spreading misinformation, or even perpetuating fraud,” he said. LeGeyt also cautioned of the increased burden placed on newsrooms that have to vet content in order to determine whether it was genuine and accurate. “Following the recent Oct. 7 terrorist attacks on Israel, fake photos and videos reached an unprecedented level on social media in a matter of minutes," he said. 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