• by Ray Schultz , Columnist, December 2, 2024

Publishers are worried about artificial intelligence (AI) and the companies selling it.

But it could serve their interests, judging by remarks made last week by Steve Hasker, chief executive of Thomson Reuters. 

Publishers have a reason to be wary: many have found that their content has been used — without permission — to train large language models, Hasker observed. But he added that licensing deals “clear the air in terms of the legalities of that use,” according to a report by the UK’s Times. 

As someone who scans the wires every day, I take Reuters very seriously as a news source and Hasker’s opinion carries some weight. 

Hasker made a similar case in an article in Fortune. 

What does a publisher like Reuters bring to licensing deals? 

“Reuters has a historical news file as a reference data set for these models,” Hasker said. “Our news is free of bias. It is independent. It’s fact based. It is triple checked and verified. We don’t offer opinions. We’re not leaning left or leaning right or spinning a narrative for the entertainment of our listeners, viewers or readers. It really is the underlying facts associated with the news. So it’s a particularly powerful source for these models to be trained on or built on.”

A good model for everyone to follow: AI or no AI.