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News Corp boss Robert Thomson made an indirect plea to US President Donald Trump over AI theft and the threat of a “deeply derivative woke AI” while delivering the company’s full-year results on Wednesday.
The company delivered “sterling” financial results, Thomson said, with total revenues up 2 per cent to $US8.45 billion ($13.1 billion) across the year, led by REA Group and the Dow Jones Company.
Rupert Murdoch and Donald Trump have had a tumultuous month. Credit: Bloomberg
Though there was no reference to the company’s ongoing lawsuit brought by Trump last month, Thomson singled out the President’s book, The Art of the Deal, to illustrate an ongoing point about the threats of intellectual theft posed by AI firms. It was a second sign of News Corp’s attempts to appease Trump in 24 hours, after an agreement was struck to pause the process to expedite Rupert Murdoch’s deposition on Tuesday.
“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,” Thomson said.
“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? Suddenly, The Art of the Deal has become The Art of the Steal.”
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“Is it just that the president of the United States is being ripped off?” Thomson said.
AI firms must spend tens of billions compensating content-producing firms responsible for their success, Thomson said, and to ensure a variance of sources to avoid “a deeply derivative woke AI does not become the default pathway to digital decay”.
It was otherwise a strong result for News Corp in its first full-year report since the sale of Australian pay TV business Foxtel, which it sold to British streamer DAZN in April. News Corp reported earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) of $US1.42 billion, up 14 per cent.
News Corp owns the Dow Jones Company, which includes The Wall Street Journal, as well as book publisher Harper Collins, REA Group, and a suite of news titles across the globe such as The Australian, Daily Telegraph, Herald Sun, The Times and The New York Post.
News Corp chief Robert Thomson singled out Trump’s book The Art of the Deal to illustrate an ongoing point about the threats of intellectual theft posed by AI firms.Credit: Ballantine Books
Revenues fell for the News Media segment by four per cent across the year, but total EBITDA rose by 15 per cent to $US153 billion. For the digital real estate segment, which includes REA Group, revenues rose by 9 per cent across the year to $US1.8 billion, with EBITDA up 18 per cent to $US601 million.
The Wall Street Journal has led reporting on Trump’s dealings with disgraced former financier Jeffrey Epstein, with a story in July detailing an alleged letter sent by the now-president to his then-friend in 2003, leading to the multibillion-dollar lawsuit.
The past year has made it clear that discerning audiences “crave content that is profound and purposeful and pithy amidst a morass of mediocrity and mendacity”, Thomson said.
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The Wall Street Journal drove subscriptions seven per cent higher across the year. The suite of Australian mastheads reported digital subscriptions of 993,000, up from 968,000 at the same time last year.
More to come
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