Robert Thomson, chief executive of the usually Trump-friendly HarperCollins parent company News Corp, has become something of master of carefully calling the president’s attention to matters on which the two parties disagree. One matter in particular is the need for strong copyright protections for intellectual property in the age of AI.
Following the late July release of the White House’s AI action plan, President Trump made remarks that generally characterized copyright as an obstacle to the rapid development of AI in the United States. “You can’t be expected to have a successful AI program when every single article, book, or anything else that you’ve read or studied, you’re supposed to pay for,” Trump said, adding: “You just can’t do it. China’s not doing it.”
In comments made following the release of News Corp's fiscal 2025 results, Thomson appeared to challenge the president’s comments. “Much is made of the competition with China, but America’s advantage is ingenuity and creativity, not bits and bytes, not watts but wit. To undermine that comparative advantage by stripping away IP rights is to vandalize our virtuosity. We need to be more enlightened, to eulogize eunoia, socially and commercially.”
Thomson also suggested that taking away copyright protection could directly hurt Trump financially. Pointing out that Trump has written many successful books, including The Art of the Deal, Thomson said Trump is in danger of forfeiting earnings if his works are copied by AI companies without compensation. “Is it right that his books should be consumed by an AI engine, which then profits from his thoughts by cannibalizing his concepts, thus undermining future sales of his book?” Thomson wondered. “Suddenly, The Art of the Deal has become The Art of the Steal. Is it fair that creators are having their works purloined? Is it just that the President of the United States is being ripped off?”
News Corp is one of the few media companies that has successfully signed licensing agreements with AI companies for content created by writers at both HarperCollins and the Wall Street Journal, which it also owns.
Despite the fact that Trump is suing News Corp and WSJ over an article the paper published connected to the Jeffrey Epstein case, Thomson suggested that AI companies need the type of content that News Corp develops. “They need to ensure that the content eco-system remains healthy, that there is a vast range of varied and verifiable sources, and that a deeply derivative Woke AI does not become the default pathway to digital decay,” Thomson said.
Thomson concluded that since AI companies are spending tens of billions of dollars on data centers, chips, and energy generation, those companies also “need to spend tens of millions or more on the content crucial for their success.”
