News Corp Warns Trump: AI's 'Art of the Steal' Threatens Book Sales and Intellectual Property

News Corp warns Trump AI is eviscerating sales of The Art of the Deal

News Corp is warning Donald Trump that AI is cannibalizing sales of his books, including The Art of the Deal. The company, owned by billionaire Rupert Murdoch, owns dozens of newspapers and TV channels around the world including the Wall Street Journal, the Times (in the UK), the Australian and the New York Post. News Corp also owns book publisher HarperCollins, which has published three of Trump's books, though his best-known title, The Art of the Deal, was published by Random House. Still, the company appeared keen to warn Trump about the impact AI is having on publishing. "The AI age must cherish the value of intellectual property if we are collectively to realize our potential," News Corp said in a statement with its fourth-quarter earnings report. "Even the president of the United States is not immune to blatant theft. The president's books are still reporting healthy sales, but are being consumed by AI engines which profit from his thoughts by cannibalizing his concepts, thus undermining future sales of his books. "Suddenly, The Art of the Deal has become The Art of the Steal." Media outlets have sued AI companies, including OpenAI, operator of ChatGPT, for using their content to train AI models without permission. In May, a federal judge rejected OpenAI's request to dismiss a lawsuit from the New York Times over its usage of the newspaper's content. Dow Jones, which publishes the Wall Street Journal, and the New York Post sued Perplexity AI in October over similar copyright claims. News Corp's message to Trump also comes after the White House last month announced Trump's "AI action plan" that would see the loosening of AI regulations that had been put in place under the Biden administration. In an earnings call Tuesday, News Corp CEO Robert Thomson said that the company is in the middle of "advanced negotiations with several AI companies". "It's clear that many of them have come to recognize that the purchase of [intellectual property] is as important as the acquisition of semiconductors or the securing of stable energy sources," he said, noting that it's a mix of "wooing and suing". "We prefer the former, but we will never shy away from protecting our property rights," he said. The warning comes at a tense moment between News Corp and the White House. Trump sued the Wall Street Journal after the newspaper published a report that the president had once sent Jeffrey Epstein an intimate birthday message that included a sexually suggestive drawing of a woman. Trump claimed that the report was false and amounted to libel. The newspaper has requested a judge dismiss the case. Murdoch, who also owns Fox News, was once friendly with Trump, though relations soured during the president's third presidential campaign. The company beat fourth-quarter expectations with Tuesday's earnings announcement, largely due to a rise in digital subscriptions from Dow Jones, which houses the company's business publications like the Wall Street Journal, Barron's and MarketWatch. On Monday, News Corp announced it will launch a sister tabloid to the New York Post in California, called the California Post, in early 2026.

News Corp's Australian newspaper revenue falls as CEO warns Trump of AI's 'art of the steal'

Sign up for Guardian Australia's free weekly media newsletter here Revenue generated from News Corp's global newspaper mastheads has fallen sharply, including in Australia, weighing down an otherwise positive financial result. Rupert Murdoch's media conglomerate continues to generate large wads of cash from its digital real estate arm but advertising revenue at News Corp Australia, a division that includes the Australian, the Daily Telegraph and the Herald Sun, was down 5% over the past financial year to US$343m (A$530m). Circulation and subscription revenue also fell, according to results released early on Wednesday. Its UK news division, which counts the Times and the Sun among its mastheads, suffered even steeper revenue falls, as weak advertising conditions buffeted media companies around the world. News Corp, a US-headquartered company that is also listed on the ASX, owns mastheads in the US, the UK and Australia, and operates the book publisher HarperCollins. The Murdoch-controlled company also owns the Wall Street Journal publisher Dow Jones and has a majority stake in REA Group, the owner of realestate.com.au. It announced the sale of Foxtel late last year. While News Corp is best known for its traditional media assets, it describes the book publishing, real estate portal and Dow Jones information businesses as its "core growth pillars". The latter two divisions generated record income last year, lifting overall revenue to US$8.45bn (A$13.1bn), up 2%. Its controlling stake in REA has generated an ongoing windfall for News Corp, given that the division is tapped directly into Australia's robust property market. The real estate portal is expected to soon face stiffer competition from its rival Domain, which has just been sold to the US giant CoStar. The News Corp chief executive, Robert Thomson, described the overall result as "sterling". Thomson told analysts shortly after the financials were released that News Corp was in "in the midst of advanced negotiations with several AI companies" over the purchase of its intellectual property. Media companies around the world have raised concerns over how they will be compensated for content already being used to train AI products. In comments designed to attract the attention of the US president, Thomson referred to books including Donald Trump's The Art of the Deal being used by AI engines without compensation. "Is it right that his books should be consumed by an AI engine which then profits from his thoughts by cannibalising his concepts, thus undermining future sales of his book?" Thomson said. "Suddenly, The Art of the Deal has become the art of the steal. "We will fight to protect the intellectual property of our authors and journalists and continue to woo and to sue companies that violate the most basic property rights."

Murdoch's News Corp warns Trump is suffering 'blatant theft' from AI

Rupert Murdoch's News Corp has warned Donald Trump is suffering "blatant theft" from artificial intelligence (AI) amid a $10bn legal battle between the two tycoons. News Corp, the parent company of newspapers including the Wall Street Journal, The Sun and The Times, as well as book publisher HarperCollins, warned that American creativity was under threat if copyright protections were stripped away. Robert Thomson, chief executive of News Corp, said: "Even the president of the United States is not immune to this blatant theft. "The president's books are still reporting healthy sales, but are being consumed by AI engines which profit from his thoughts by cannibalising his concepts, thus undermining future sales of his books. Suddenly, The Art of the Deal has become The Art of the Steal." HarperCollins has published several of the US president's books, including Think Big: Make It Happen in Business and Life. The Art of the Deal, his best-known book, was published by Random House. The comments come after Mr Trump outlined an AI Action Plan that critics say panders to tech companies by watering down intellectual property protections. Dow Jones, the News Corp subsidiary that publishes the Wall Street Journal, is among a host of media groups to have sued AI companies for using copyrighted material to train their models without permission. Others have struck deals to licence their content to tech companies. Amazon will reportedly pay The New York Times more than $20m a year for access to its news and cooking output, as well as its sports title The Athletic. Epstein allegations It also comes amid a bitter standoff between Mr Murdoch and the US president, who has filed a $10bn defamation lawsuit against Dow Jones, the publishing firm owned by News Corp. The legal battle relates to a story published in the Wall Street Journal alleging that Mr Trump penned a "bawdy" birthday card to the late paedophile Jeffrey Epstein. The president has dismissed the claims as "false". The dispute signals a breakdown in relations between Mr Trump and Mr Murdoch, whose cable channel Fox News played a critical role in the president's ascent to the White House.

Even the President of the United States is being ripped of by avaricious AI predators, argues News Corp CEO Robert Thomson

News Corp has been one of the most forthright voices in the ongoing battle royal between content creators and avaricious AI companies which appear to see nothing wrong in wholesale copyright infringement and IP theft in order to flesh out and train their models. For example, the owner of The Wall Street Journal and the New York Post, has filed a lawsuit against Perplexity AI, among others, accusing the start-up of copyright infringement. CEO Robert Thomson is in no mood to mince his words: It has become big over the past year that discerning audiences crave content that is profound and purposeful empathy amidst a morass of mediocrity and mendacity. Our writers and journalists and creators of all kinds are conscious of both responsibility and the opportunity, cognizant that we are at a historic inflection point in the age of AI. That AI age must cherish the value of intellectual property if we are collectively to realize our potential. The AI frontline isn't necessarily going to be located around tech, he suggests: Much is made of the competition with China, but America's advantage is ingenuity and creativity, not bits and bytes, not watts, but with to undermine that comparative advantage by stripping away IP rights is to vandalize our virtuosity. We need to be more enlightened to unitize [AI] socially and commercially. He adds: Companies are spending tens of billions on data centers, tens of billions on chips, tens of billions on energy generation. These same companies need to spend tens of millions or more on the content crucial for their success And he drew on an unlikely, given his relationship with and attitude towards many News Corp publications, example of someone who's being hard done by here: Take the example of President Trump. He has written many successful books, in particular, The Art of the Deal, which is still reporting notable sales. Is it right that his books should be consumed by an AI engine, which then profits from his thoughts by cannibalizing his concepts, thus undermining future sales of his book. Suddenly, The Art of the Deal has become the art of the steel. Is it fair that creators are having their works per Lloyd? Is it just that the President of the United States is being ripped off? News Corp will not waver here, Thomson suggests: I need to ensure that the content ecosystem remains healthy that there is a vast range of varied and verifiable sources and that a deeply derivative work AI does not become the default pathway to digital decay. In the meantime, we will fight to protect the intellectual property of our authors and journalists and continue to win and to sue companies that violate the most basic property rights. He's quite prepared to come to an agreement, but also not afraid to wield a very big stick, is the bottom line: We're in the midst of advanced negotiations with several AI companies. So it is clear that many of them have come to recognize that the purchase of IP is as important as the acquisition of semiconductors or the securing stable energy sources. And in the end, IP powers AI. Now these are important deals, particularly for our News Media Properties and Dow Jones. And there is, as I mentioned, a mix of wooing and suing for the former, but we will never shy away from protecting our property rise. All of this can make for some interesting bedfellows. After initial hostilities, last year News Corp signed a multi-year agreement with OpenAI to allow the latter to display content from the former's mastheads in response to user questions and to allow the company to enhance its products. Meanwhile OpenAI was shaken by the sudden public profile gained by China's lower cost, open source DeepSeek, resulting in its releasing a couple of its own 'open' models to compete. For its part, News Corp in February banned its employees from using China's DeepSeek AI due to concerns from its cybersecurity teams about privacy and data leakage. It's also very wary of the idea that DeepSeek might tap into OpenAI's data and by implication into News Corp's own IP in the process, leading to Thomson threatening:

News Corp CEO Robert Thomson slams AI firms for stealing copyrighted...

News Corp boss Robert Thomson called on the White House to crack down on AI companies from swiping copyrighted material -- warning President Trump that even his best-selling book "The Art of the Deal" was ripped off. "Is it right that his books should be consumed by an AI engine, which then profits from his thoughts by cannibalizing his concepts, thus undermining future sales of his book?" Thomson said. "Suddenly, 'The Art of the Deal' has become The Art of the Steal." Thomson sounded the alarm about AI companies profiting at the expense of publishers and authors, including Trump, after The Post's parent company reported better-than-expected quarterly earnings Tuesday. In June, Meta successfully defended itself in a federal lawsuit brought by several authors that accused the company of training its Llama artificial intelligence system on copyrighted books without permission, though the presiding judge warned that the victory doesn't establish the legality of such practices. The case involved claims that Meta used over 190,000 protected works, including "The Art of the Deal." "Is it fair that creators are having their works purloined? Is it just that the President of the United States is being ripped off?" Thomson asked. News Corp - whose properties also include the Wall Street Journal, Barron's and book publisher HarperCollins - is suing AI startup Perplexity for allegedly stealing content to train its language model. The media executive said the voracious appetite of the AI firms to train their bots on proprietary content without paying for it risks eroding America's edge over rival nations. "Much is made of the competition with China, but America's advantage is ingenuity and creativity, not bits and bytes, not watts but wit," he said. "To undermine that comparative advantage by stripping away IP rights is to vandalize our virtuosity." Last month, the Trump administration rolled out its "AI Action Plan" which aims to accelerate innovation through increased R&D funding and support for open-source AI while rapidly expanding AI infrastructure with fast-tracked permits and workforce programs. The plan promotes deregulation and centralized federal control while opposing what it calls "woke" or ideologically biased models, mandating only "neutral" AI in federal procurement. Thomson, however, also pushed for the AI giants -- which include Meta, Google, OpenAI and Amazon -- to splash a fraction of the billions they have earmarked for infrasctructure to fuel their rapid ascent. "Companies are spending tens of billions on data centers, tens of billions on chips, tens of billions on energy generation -- these same companies need to spend tens of millions or more on the content crucial for their success," Thomson said. Beyond the media industry's financial concerns, Thomson expressed worry about the long-term health of the content ecosystem. He argued that AI companies need to ensure diverse and reliable sources of information continue to thrive, rather than creating what he termed a "deeply derivative" system that could lead to broader problems in digital information quality. "It has also become clearer over the past year that discerning audiences crave content that is profound and purposeful and pithy amidst a morass of mediocrity and mendacity," Thomson observed. He added that writers, journalists, and other creators understand both the responsibility and opportunity they face in the current AI-dominated landscape. News Corp has been among the most vocal media companies in demanding compensation from AI firms that use their content for training purposes. In May of last year, the media giant struck a landmark, multiyear partnership with OpenAI, giving the ChatGpt maker access to news content from many of its flagship publications for use in training and servicing of its AI products. Separately, the company filed a federal lawsuit against Perplexity AI last year, accusing the startup of systematically stealing copyrighted news content. Perplexity AI has denied the claim and disputed News Corp's characterization of how its technology works. Thomson pledged that News Corp would continue both courtship and legal action as strategies for protecting their content creators. "In the meantime, we will fight to protect the intellectual property of our authors and journalists, and continue to woo and to sue companies that violate the most basic property rights," Thomson said.