India debates AI training payments amid Times Network advocacy
There's a big debate in India right now about how AI companies should pay publishers when they use news articles and other content to train their language models.
Times Network is raising awareness about the need for publishers and content creators to be compensated by AI developers.
The Department of Industrial and Internal Trade proposed a hybrid licensing model with a mandatory blanket license for AI developers to make sure publishers get paid but can't block their content from being used for AI training.
Publishers oppose nonprofit royalties plan
The proposed model would have a nonprofit handle royalty payments, but many publishers want the freedom to strike their own deals with AI firms instead.
Experts are calling out the lack of clear rules on intellectual property and fair use—Kanishk Agrawal points out it's tough to protect original work, while Kumar Rajagopalan says we need better standards for what counts as "fair usage."
Others worry about how payments would actually get distributed, with Maaz Ansari suggesting flexible options like flat fees or revenue sharing to fit different industries.