Artificial Intelligence and the return of journalism's gatekeepers

The increasing enclosure of the digital commons

The revelation this week that OpenAI and News Corp have signed a content deal is the latest sign that the open web is quickly becoming a thing of the past and that digitised news—once potentially a democratising development as a communication tool—is increasingly transforming from the sort of commons it once was into yet another zone of control for the benefit of handful of rich corporations.

The gatekeepers are back, baby.

News Corp and Open AI are being secretive about the details of their deal, but you get a sense of what is happening from these comments:

News Corp announced an agreement with OpenAI to let the company use content from more than a dozen of its publications in the ChatGPT-maker’s products.

As part of the deal, OpenAI’s services will be able to display news from the Wall Street Journal, Barron’s and New York Post and some of its other publications, including Australian products The Australian, news.com.au, The Daily Telegraph, The Courier Mail, The Advertiser, and Herald …