Surprisingly, according to the development, some emerging artificial intelligence applications, such as ChatGPT Atlas and Comet developed by Perplexity, are already said to be able to beat online paywalls.
They are meant to assist the users to discover the information at a quicker pace, though their content restriction capabilities have cast some severe doubts concerning the concept of ethics, copyright, and the future of online journalism.
What is going on with these AI tools?
Within the last year, multiple AI driven web helpers have been launched to help make the web browsing process more productive.
Among the most popular are such tools as ChatGPT Atlas, Comet by Perplexity, and Aria AI.
They are able to summarize articles, respond to the questions of the users, and make some kind of insights founded on the online material even when it is put behind the paywall.
In these AI models, advanced browsing systems are utilized whereby they scan and interpret web pages in real time.
Whenever a question is posed by the user, the AI will locate data in different sources even high end websites that would normally charge a subscription.
Although this appears convenient to the users, it is a cause of concern to most media organizations.
To come up with good quality journalism, publishers will spend a lot of money, and their paywalls contribute to the revenue that enables them to run their business.
When AI technology begins to provide the same material at zero cost, it will cause the whole news system of subscriptions to fail.
Experts in the industry assert that most of these AI models do not have intentions of stealing the material, but their data retrieval processes are casting gray lines to the law.
Numerous AI applications are based on web crawlers or open APIs in order to retrieve information.
And yet, in case they gain access to paywall materials despite being unauthorized, it is arguably a breach of the terms of service of the websites.
The Greater Evil: Who owns the content?
The scandal reinforce the centuries old argument of training data and ownership of digital assets.
For years publishers have lamented that they have been training AI models with their articles without any payment or recognition. This has made the paywall issue an even more complicated problem.
It is now possible to read summaries of paid articles with the help of AI-powered tools such as ChatGPT Atlas and Comet by Perplexity, which then extract the information based on the limited site using the free tool without ever reaching the source.
This may have the effect of decreasing the traffic and advertising income of publishers, something the media industry is in trouble with in the first place.
According to technology analysts, the uncontrolled further development of these tools can trigger a lawsuit and policy reform avalanche.
All governments throughout the world, notably in the U.S. and Europe, have already begun formulating AI copyright and content access legislation in order to determine what is legal and what is not.
Simultaneously, AI producers state that such devices are merely assisting people to save their time.
In their opinion, AI browsers are created to simplify the information conveyed by people and make it more readily available, without stealing data.
Others also note that such AI systems are not always able to access complete articles they can be based on cached information, metadata, or publicly available snippets.
Paywall bypassing controversy is the way of showing that AI innovation is sometimes outpacing regulation. Publishers seek to protect, and AI businesses aim to go open and innovative.
Analysts are hopeful that media businesses and AI engines can be the answer to the problem.
Licensing deals are already being discussed by some companies, where AI tools can get legal access to their work and briefly summarize it for a fee.
This would serve the interests of both parties in a way that users receive helpful summaries and creators receive compensation for their work.
This problem will continue to gain significance as more AI colored browsers are introduced.
Regardless of whether it results in the tightening of content related legislation or extended relations between news producers and AI businesses, there is one important thing to remember the war between AI convenience and content proprietorship is only starting.
