The battle between journalism and AI intensifies

The battle between journalism and artificial intelligence intensified this year, as lawsuits advanced, licensing deals multiplied, and new tools proliferated, marking an escalating struggle to define the place of the press in the AI era and to protect the value and sustainability of journalism.

The confrontation unfolded on multiple fronts. Lawsuits over the use of journalistic content to train AI systems moved through the courts toward consequential rulings, while a growing number of publishers struck licensing deals with AI companies, pursuing varied strategies.

At the same time, the rise of AI-powered search and assistants, which answered users' questions directly rather than directing them to original sources, threatened the traffic and revenue that flowed to news sites, posing a growing threat to the economics of journalism.

News organisations also continued to grapple with how to use AI in their own work, seeking efficiencies and new capabilities while defending the accuracy, standards and trust central to journalism, and establishing guidelines and safeguards for the responsible use of the technology.

The intensifying battle reflected the high stakes of the relationship between journalism and AI, as the technology threatened to further undermine the fragile economics of the press even as it offered potential tools, and as the terms of the relationship remained unsettled and contested.

The escalating struggle to define journalism's place in the AI era emerged as one of the defining issues facing the media industry, with the outcome likely to shape the future of the press. The lawsuits, licensing deals, new tools and emerging practices all contributed to the unfolding effort to establish the terms on which journalism and artificial intelligence would coexist, a consequential and still-uncertain contest whose resolution would help determine whether journalism could thrive in the age of AI.