Mon, Nov 29th, 2021 - 7:16am
January 15, 2024 - 11:54am | By Ty Schonert
(Washington, D.C.) -- A Minnesota Senator spoke with Journalism experts at a subcommittee meeting in the nation's capital about A.I. in the news industry.
Senator Amy Klobuchar voiced her concerns about A.I. and news at a subcommittee hearing in Washington D.C. on January 10th. At the meeting, Klobuchar spoke with experts on the impact on artificial intelligence and concerns with a lack of guardrails for the technology.
“When you look at what's happened with newspaper advertising revenue….from 2008 to 2020, it went down from $37 billion to $9 billion. I am very concerned that these trends will only worsen with the rise of generative AI,” said Klobuchar. “That is why [we need] the bill that Senator Kennedy and I have led for years, the Journalism Competition and Preservation Act (JCPA).”
Klobuchar reintroduced the JCPA with several other senators in March of 2023. At the time, Klobuchar said the act would allow smaller news agencies to compete and stay in business in a digital age.
“As the daughter of a newspaperman, I understand firsthand the vital role that a free press plays in strengthening our democracy. But local news is facing an existential crisis, from ad revenues plummeting and newsrooms across the country closing to artificial intelligence tools taking content. To preserve strong, independent journalism, news organizations must be able to negotiate on a level playing field with the online platforms that dominate news distribution and digital advertising,” said Klobuchar in 2023.
