Govt drafting AI law to protect news publishers, content creators

Union Minister for Electronics and Information Technology, Ashwini Vaishnaw, has disclosed that the government is considering a new law on artificial intelligence (AI). The proposed law aims to safeguard the interests of news publishers and content creators, while also reducing user harm, according to a report by The Economic Times.

The law could either be a standalone legislation or part of the forthcoming Digital India Bill, which will supersede the Information Technology Act of 2000. The minister emphasised the need for respect for creativity in terms of intellectual property and financial implications.

He also suggested that a legislative approach to regulation, rather than a self-regulatory body, would be more effective. This follows global demands for the protection of the rights of content creators, with numerous lawsuits filed against tech giants for using copyrighted content without compensation.

In India, news publishers have been calling for changes to IT rules to ensure fair compensation for the content used by AI models. The Digital News Publishers Association (DNPA), which represents 17 top media publishers in the country, has sought protection from potential copyright violations by AI models.

According to the current govt advisory, AI models that are under-tested unreliable AI should be opened to general public only after they are labeled according to their risks. The advisory released in mid-March claims the label should make the “possible inherent fallibility or unreliability of the output generated” clear to the user. Business Today