News Corp in negotiations with AI companies over content usage - CEO

By Helen Coster and Zaheer Kachwala

(Reuters) - News Corp is engaged in "various negotiations" with artificial intelligence companies over their use of its content, the company's chief executive said at an investor conference Thursday, adding it does not plan to pursue legal action against them at this stage.

"What you will see over time is a lot of litigation; some media companies have already begun those discussions," said News Corp Chief Executive Robert Thomson, speaking at the Goldman Sachs Communacopia + Technology Conference.

"Personally, we're not interested in that at this stage. We're much more interested in negotiation."

Publishers such as News Corp, which owns the Sunday Times and Wall Street Journal among other publications, are raising concerns about being compensated for content used to train Google’s generative AI chatbot Bard, as well as ChatGPT.

Launched by OpenAI in November, ChatGPT has become the world's fastest growing app to date, and its emergence has prompted the release of rivals such as Bard.

It's unclear whether more publishers will ultimately strike deals with the tech companies or pursue litigation related to the use of that content. The Associated Press struck a deal in July, licensing a part its archive of news stories to ChatGPT-owner OpenAI.

(Reporting by Zaheer Kachwala in Bengaluru; Editing by Pooja Desai and Aurora Ellis)