Rebrand 'journalism' in the time of AI

Social media platforms, with AI now as vacuum cleaners gorging on content from news organisations, must pay for IP on which they train generative AI. With IT minister Ashwini Vaishnaw flagging this point, India joins a growing list of countries airing their concern over the evolving dynamic of organic and synthetic content. This also presents an opportunity for mainstream news outlets to up their game and invest in tech, talent and more engaging forms of information curation and distribution - to differentiate themselves more conspicuously from the sheer anarchic barrage of social media.

Lawmakers are worried about perils of misleading information and amplified bias that can coerce choice in society. This becomes a bigger concern when the economics of creating AI content stifles investment in generating information that does the opposite. Tech creators, too, understand the limits of ML when trained on artificial content. For healthy development, generative AI needs a widening pipeline of natural content and must contribute materially to its creation. If the market is inefficient in pricing content, governments will have to address imperfections. Going forward, tech creators can't claim legal immunities, as the share of synthetic content they create rises on social media platforms.

The business model of social media is progressively moving towards publishing from distribution. Lawmakers are correct in questioning safe-harbour clauses in social media that are denied to legacy media. Ethical evolution of AI is an interplay of market forces and legislative intervention. Used by mainstream media responsibly and creatively, journalism - that jaded word - can be rebranded as a carrier of information the consumer can trust and, yes, enjoy.