AI tsunami at the door of the editorial office
The AI era officially appeared less than 4 years ago with the public launch of ChatGPT. Just a few months later, OpenAI's chatbot attracted 100 million users, becoming the fastest growing consumer product in history. Currently, ChatGPT is one of many increasingly powerful AI products, along with products from Anthropic, Google, Meta, Microsoft and X.
Mr. A.G. Schulzberger pointed out that there are many signs to worry about AI changing the press industry, affecting the global information ecosystem. Businesses leading the AI revolution are strengthening data control and public attention but are not fulfilling their accompanying responsibilities: Ensuring access to reliable sources of information.
He believes that many AI products are based on the act of appropriating intellectual property, exploiting journalistic content without permission or paying fees. Technology companies collect journalistic information, "package it" into separate products, and at the same time attract readers, revenue which belongs to the press agency that creates that content. This process does not only happen once during the AI model training phase but is repeated countless times every day.
As a result, the press is facing the risk of losing resources to carry out the core work of the original press activity: field operations, meeting with characters, verifying information, and monitoring power.
Believing that the world press needs to act more in the face of the AI wave, he noted: "The press industry has been too silent, too passive and too fragmented in the face of the abusive behavior of companies leading the AI revolution.
Leaders of the New York Times pointed out: "We cannot let those who advocate for AI completely dominate the public debate without speaking out to protect the sustainable future of the original press.
From work to data
AI models are built from 4 basic components: human resources, computing capacity, energy and data. The first three elements are fully paid while "data" is taken without permission or payment.
Mr. A.G. Sulzberger pointed out that the very term "data" inadvertently overshadows the true nature of the problem, causing human creative and expressive products to be seen as popular commodities. "But in fact, "data" is often another name for books, movies, music and journalism - or more precisely, "copyright content"" - he noted.
It is worth mentioning that AI companies are fully capable of paying for these contents. The total market value of the top 6 AI companies currently reaches about 11,000 billion USD, more than 3 times the French GDP. Private investment in AI in the US reached nearly 350 billion USD in 2025 and continued to accelerate in 2026.
AI industry leaders themselves also acknowledge that high-quality original content has special value for the effectiveness and reliability of models. Among the top 10 websites used to train some of the most popular major language models, up to half are news sites.
OpenAI once admitted that it would "not be possible to train top AI models today without using copyrighted materials". An engineer of this company also said that the success of the model "is not determined by architecture, hyperparameters or optimization sets, but is determined by data sets".
From symbiosis to swallowing
Before AI appeared, global journalism was strongly influenced by the internet, smartphones and social networks. In the past 2 decades, according to some estimates, the United States has lost 75% of journalists and more than 3,000 newspapers. On average, one newspaper closes every 3 days.
The AI wave is at risk of causing even greater shock, according to A.G. Sulzberger.
Previously, although unbalanced, there was still value exchange between technology platforms and journalism, through the so-called "open web". Technology companies benefited from journalistic content, in return for helping the editorial office have a larger readership.
But in the AI era, technology companies are not only taking away content but also taking away an increasing part of the readership of the press. The head of Microsoft's AI commercialization division once wrote: "The open web is built on an implicit value exchange, in which news agencies provide content and distribution channels such as search engines help people find that content. This model cannot be completely converted to an AI-prioritized world".
The inevitable consequence is a sharp decrease in traffic to news sites. Major newspapers tracked by Comscore have witnessed traffic decreases averaging more than 45% in the past 4 years as the AI race accelerates.
Leaders of the New York Times believe that, unlike the previous technological revolution, many AI companies are no longer trying to prove their coexistence and support content creators. On the contrary, they are aiming to use training data to replace the workers who created that data. Science fiction writer Margaret Atwood describes this phenomenon with a more suggestive image: "Being killed by your own copy".
Steering in the AI tsunami
To protect the achievements of the press from AI technology companies, Mr. A.G. Sulzberger outlined 4 main trends of action: Protecting the intellectual property rights of the press; being cautious in content licensing contracts with AI companies; influencing legislators to build a suitable legal framework; uniting in the industry to make clear and convincing requirements.
In addition, the press industry can also do many things to make editorial offices more solid in the face of challenges from AI. First of all, it is necessary to apply appropriate AI, build direct relationships with readers, clarify the social value of journalism and focus on the original journalism. "To become a real destination, press agencies must create unique journalistic products that are inherently attractive. The core of that is the original operation" - he noted.
The New York Times Chairman also recalled the famous saying of technology thinker Stewart Brand, which is often insufficiently quoted as "information wants to be free" but forgets the other half: "Information wants to be of high value, because it is extremely precious, because the right information, in the right place, can change your life".
This time, we cannot continue to be naive anymore" - he warned. Press organizations are now much smaller and weaker than they were 2 decades ago. Meanwhile, technology corporations are growing stronger and are ready to use that power. The AI wave can also grow larger and faster as technology continues to develop.
Even if things seem okay now, remember that the first small waves often signal a tsunami approaching. In the process of preparing for the future, we need to remind ourselves that: Information is valuable. Journalism is valuable," said A.G. Sulzberger.
