Change waits for no one. No sooner did we as an industry navigate the choppy waters of the Covid-19 years, than we find ourselves once again at the dawn of another era of profound technological transformation. Over the course of just a few months we have been witness to the speed at which generative artificial intelligence has burst into the public consciousness and the ways in which it might
disrupt and upend traditional ways of working. We need to be sceptical about its uses, adopt responsible frameworks for its application and perhaps then, be excited about its possibilities. But more importantly, we need to come together as an industry to ensure that we are not mere bystanders (and eventual victims) to this remaking of the digital world.

Here, in short order, are the principles we need to keep in mind while navigating the turbulent times ahead.

1. No Content Without Consent — We must remember that tools like ChatGPT have been built in large part, on our hard work. Journalism is 30% of what Feeds AI. Let’s not make the same mistake and give it all for free all over again. We’ve seen this story play out before with Web 1.0 and 2.0 where we hoped that traffic driven to our websites through search might lead us to more scale and a bright new era. In reality, Google and other search engines became dominant players in the online advertising market while publishers were left with little control over the revenue streams or their content. We cannot fall into the trap of free feeding once again, hoping we will get something in return. As an industry we need to push for legislation to protect our intellectual property from being consumed and analysed by AI without consent and without appropriate remuneration.

The Innovation in Media 2023 World Report will be available in print and digital editions, with the digital format containing 30+ additional pages of content. The Report will be available to order from 7th June 2023.