Headlines

DeepSeek launch underlines value of news content to AI companies

The release of the new R1 model by China-based AI start-up DeepSeek has a number of important implications for news publishers, cutting across the future economics of AI, the ability of IP holders to protect their rights and the risks that these technologies pose to the broader information ecosystem. DeepSeek’s training data was obtained without authorisation or even transparency; the crawlers it is using are undeclared, third-party or hidden.

Source: DeepSeek launch underlines value of news content to AI companies

AI crawler wars threaten to make the web more closed for everyone

Web publishers have responded to AI with a trifecta of lawsuits, legislation, and computer science. What began with a litany of copyright infringement suits, including one from the New York Times, has turned into a wave of restrictions on use of websites’ data, as well as legislation such as the EU AI Act to protect copyright holders’ ability to opt out of AI training.

Source: AI crawler wars threaten to make the web more closed for everyone

Thousands of Artists Demand Christie’s Cancels AI Art Sale

An open letter to the house signed by almost 4,000 people is demanding Christie’s bins its “Augmented Intelligence” auction, slated to run from February 20 to March 5. It’s billed as the “first-ever AI-dedicated sale at a major auction house.” Artists Kelly McKernan and Karla Ortiz, two signatories the letter. They are taking AI companies to court over claims that the firms’ image generation tools have used their work without permission.

Source: Thousands of Artists Demand Christie’s Cancels AI Art Sale: ‘AI Models Exploit Humans’

AI chatbots unable to accurately summarise news, BBC finds

Four major artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots are inaccurately summarising news stories, according to research carried out by the BBC. The BBC gave OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Microsoft’s Copilot, Google’s Gemini and Perplexity AI content from the BBC website then asked them questions about the news. It said the resulting answers contained “significant inaccuracies” and distortions.

Source: AI chatbots unable to accurately summarise news, BBC finds

Thomson Reuters wins an early court battle over AI, copyright, and fair use

On Tuesday, US District Court of Delaware judge Stephanos Bibas issued a partial summary judgment in favor of Thomson Reuters in its copyright infringement lawsuit against Ross Intelligence, a legal AI startup. Filed in 2020, it’s one of the first cases that will deal with the legality of AI tools and how they are trained, often using copyrighted data scraped from somewhere else without license or permission.

Source: Thomson Reuters wins an early court battle over AI, copyright, and fair use

OpenAI spoke to government officials about its DeepSeek probe

The ChatGPT-maker previously claimed to have evidence that DeepSeek trained its AI models using improperly obtained data from OpenAI’s API. During a Bloomberg TV interview on Monday, OpenAI’s chief global affairs officer, Chris Lehane, said the company has talked with government officials about the probe. Some have criticized OpenAI for hypocrisy here.

Source: OpenAI spoke to government officials about its DeepSeek probe | TechCrunch

AI Agents Are Now Trading IP Rights With Each Other

While artists worldwide have been complaining about AI stealing their work, Story Protocol believes it has come up with a solution. The platform has introduced a system that lets AI agents trade intellectual property rights with each other, turning them into paying customers for tokenized IP rights on the blockchain. If you can’t beat them, join them, as they say.

Source: AI Agents Are Now Trading IP Rights With Each Other—And Earning Crypto for Their Owners – Decrypt

DeepSeek is a wake-up call for the music industry – and its data goldmine

The DeepSeek R1 algorithm works. And it’s spreading. You can download the code, run it on your own server or PC, and see results that differ from those on Chinese-hosted versions. DeepSeek means that everyone, from researchers in São Paulo to start-ups in Stockholm and doctors in Nairobi, can access state-of-the-art AI at little to no cost. You just need a $2,000 machine with 512GB RAM to run DeepSeek R1 locally, generating 3.5–4 tokens per second.

Source: DeepSeek is a wake-up call for the music industry – and its data goldmine

AAP, IPA Join Groups Calling for AI to Respect Copyright

Thirty-eight international organizations representing creative industries—including the Association of American Publishers, under the auspices of the International Publishers Association—have released a joint statement calling for oversight and regulation of artificial intelligence development, focusing on respect for copyright and related intellectual property.

Source: AAP, IPA Join Groups Calling for AI to Respect Copyright

US Copyright Office launches inquiry into performance rights organizations

The USCO launched a call for written submissions from the public about the PROs in response to a letter sent by members of the House Judiciary Committee to the Copyright Office last September. The letter expressed concerns about the number of PROs in the US and the difficulties many businesses face in licensing music, given the need to sign blanket licensing agreements with numerous collections organizations.

Source: US Copyright Office launches inquiry into performance rights organizations

Get the latest RightsTech news and analysis delivered directly in your inbox every week
We respect your privacy.