• by Ray Schultz , August 14, 2023

The New York Times has changed its terms of service to forbid the scraping of its content for use in AI training, reports state. 

In this update of the terms, the Times prohibits use of “robots, spiders, scripts, service, software or any manual or automatic device, tool, or process designed to data mine or scrape” its content.  

In general, the Times warns that engaging in a prohibited use of its services may result in “civil, criminal, and/or administrative penalties, fines, or sanctions against the user and those assisting the user.” 

This move could be a response to Google’s updated privacy policy, allowing it to collect public data from the web to train its AI services, including Bard and Cloud AI, The Verge speculates. 

The Times also does not allow companies to “use, access, or collect the Content, data or information from the Services using automated means.” 

In addition, firms may not use Times content for “any software program, including, but not limited to, training a machine learning or artificial intelligence (AI) system.”

These rules cover all content “including, but not limited to text, photographs, images, illustrations, designs, audio clips, video clips... metadata, data, or compilations,” the Times says.  

The Times also warns that it “may, in its sole discretion, terminate or suspend your access to all or part of the Services for any reason, including, without limitation, breach or assignment of these Terms of Service."

The story first broke in AdWeek.