News Corp CEO Slams AI Companies as 'Crass Kleptomaniacs' for Pilfering Content at Scale

News Corp labels some AI companies 'crass kleptomaniacs'

Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation appears to have let its most acerbic writers loose on its latest results announcement, in which certain AI companies are branded "crass kleptomaniacs." CEO Robert Thomson used his prepared remarks to point out that if it weren't for all the quality content from News Corp, "users would be drowning in a slimy sea of AI slop." "We have trusted content relationships with OpenAI and Meta, and are in advanced discussions with several other companies," he added, before issuing a warning. "Under our woo and sue approach, we are taking aggressive action against those who pilfer and profit from our work. We will pursue those pilferers, and companies that are clients of these crass kleptomaniacs should know they are patently in possession of stolen goods." Thomson was just getting warmed up. He accused browser maker Brave, which he described as "a company brave in name only," of having "shamelessly stolen our content at scale" and of having "illegally, gormlessly sourced and repurposed copyrighted material for sale to third-party businesses." "Their scheming started with masked web crawlers scanning our pages to ingest copyrighted articles and continued when they repackaged those stolen files and delivered near verbatim copies to enterprise customers, undermining legitimate content commerce and the very concept of creativity." The CEO suggested the legal blast radius of such actions could be wide. "We expect our lawsuits to highlight and halt the murky, illegal behavior of AI companies who steal and flagrantly fence our precious IP," he said. "Unfortunately, some of the world's better-known companies are clients of these crass kleptomaniacs." He had kinder adjectives for companies that pay for News Corp's content, describing them as "principled" and "honorable." The CEO said the company has "more deals to come, and hopefully not too much litigation," and hailed Meta and OpenAI for setting "benchmarks that other principled companies should follow." News Corp is not alone in accusing AI companies of taking its work: authors have filed several lawsuits alleging that their books were used to train LLMs without permission or compensation. Anthropic agreed to establish a $1.5 billion settlement fund to resolve one such case. During the question-and-answer section of the earnings call, Thomson praised the company's realtor.com property site for "building proprietary IP that no AI engine can legally scrape." "No buyer or seller or agent wants housing hallucinations," he said. Nor does News Corp. Its Digital Real Estate Services segment was its fastest-growing business, with annual revenue jumping 12 percent to $1.8 billion. Across News Corp as a whole, full-year revenue reached $9.03 billion, up 7 percent. The company didn't break out revenue from OpenAI and Meta, but Thomson said News Corp's deals with them "are not merely transactional arrangements." "They are savvy distributors. Our inputs are crucial components of their outputs. As for litigation, it's far from over," he said. The old advice was never to argue with people who buy ink by the barrel. Legacy media may have lost some of its clout, but Thomson's remarks suggest News Corp has lost none of its appetite for a fight. The company also has form when campaigning against perceived foes and critics: a recent book attempts to distill its methods. ®

News Corp subscriptions fall in Australia as company takes aim at 'slimy' AI slop

Chief executive Robert Thomson says 'crass kleptomaniac' AI companies are 'in possession of stolen goods' News Corp has reported a slight slide in digital subscriptions at its Australian mastheads, erasing recent gains, among otherwise robust financials at the Rupert Murdoch-backed global conglomerate. Digital subscribers at News Corp Australia - a division that includes the Australian, the Daily Telegraph and the Herald Sun, among others - fell from 1,166,000 to 1,162,000 during the financial year, according to the company's internal data published in its full year results on Thursday morning. The figures represent a reversal in momentum. The Australian division has grown digital subscriptions in recent years, as it transitions away from its traditional newspaper base. News Corp's broader news media unit, which includes the Sun and the Times in London and the New York Post, recorded mixed results, with advertising revenue still under pressure, falling 2% during the year to 30 June. The news media division also recorded costs linked to the launch of News Corp's latest newspaper, the California Post, which is the Los Angeles outpost of the New York Post and edited by Australian News Corp veteran Nick Papps. The News Corp chief executive, Robert Thomson, used the release of the company's financial results to hit out at AI models that "pilfer and profit from our work", as media companies around the world seek compensation for the use of their content. "Without our journalists, our authors, our data, our brands and our professional expertise, users would be drowning in a slimy sea of AI slop," Thomson said. "We will pursue those pilferers and companies that are clients of these crass kleptomaniacs should know they are patently in possession of stolen goods." News Corp has commercial agreements in place with OpenAI and Meta. The comments come amid contested plans by the Albanese government to expand its news bargaining incentive, which would require tech giants to compensate media outlets for the news on their platforms, either through making commercial deals or paying a higher levy.