Microsoft CEO: Journalists should welcome AI

LONDON — Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella on Monday said the disruption posed by artificial intelligence to the information ecosystem should be welcomed by journalists and publishers.

The comments come just weeks after the New York Times launched legal action over Microsoft-backed OpenAI’s usage of the newspapers’ content to train models.

Speaking at a Chatham House event in central London before heading off to Davos, Nadella said generative AI products like ChatGPT, which is developed by OpenAI, could be a welcome disruption to how people get access to information.

“Let's face it, there's a real aggregation power in a few places, right? Search is one. News feeds is another. Both of these things could be up for disruption,” Nadella said, in a veiled swipe at Google and Meta, U.S. tech rivals that are dominant in both areas.

“What happens to the information ecosystem when there's high concentration is deterioration,” said the Indian-American executive, dressed down in a navy t-shirt and fleece under his suit jacket.

He said that as a result, journalists and publishers “should welcome” generative AI. The New York Times’ lawsuit targets both OpenAI and Microsoft. (POLITICO owner Axel Springer has a deal to license content to OpenAI.)

In a further swipe to his Big Tech rivals, Nadella suggested that threat of dis- and misinformation in the spate of upcoming elections in 2024 was more a question of controlling social media platforms than the generative AI products which could be used to produce fake content.

“There should be real control over distribution. Anybody can write anything in a word processor and then the only control human society has is how that information is disseminated, and that’s where we have to exercise more control,” Nadella said.