Public broadcasters ARD and ZDF, along with several media associations, are calling for political action to safeguard against the potential misuse of artificial intelligence. They issued a joint appeal to the public on Tuesday, stating that “fair frameworks are necessary so that media companies can continue to secure a diverse and democratic public sphere”.
Specifically, they are demanding revisions to laws concerning media, competition, and copyright. The demand outlines that editorial media providers must retain “full control over how their content is utilized by AI providers and platforms”. This stipulation must apply not only when editorial content is used for training AI but also when developing AI-based competitor offerings aimed at media providers. Furthermore, the decision-making authority regarding the use of journalistic content by AI providers and platforms must remain with “the sovereignty of the editorial media providers”.
The groups also insist on explicit and enforceable German rights that would obligate AI platforms accessing or commercially exploiting journalistic content to pay appropriate compensation to media providers. They emphasize that this requires full transparency regarding the use and employment of journalistic and editorial material.
In the realm of media law, ARD, ZDF, and the publishing industry hope for a consistent protection of media diversity against the market power of digital AI gatekeepers. Major big-tech platforms have long taken up an increasingly central role in aggregating and displaying media content, a trend that the deployment of generative AI is expected to strengthen.
According to the German media providers, the “Report on Copyright and Generative Artificial Intelligence” which the European Parliament adopted by a large majority in March, is already moving in the right direction. They view the report as a call to action directed at the EU Commission, and they are urging the German government to participate actively in this legislative process.
