Ad lobby seeks law to protect publishers from AI scraping
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IAB CEO David Cohen. Photo: Kerry Flynn/Axios
Interactive Advertising Bureau CEO David Cohen announced proposed draft legislation and plans to push for action to protect publishers from AI companies using their content to train models and generate summaries without compensation.
Why it matters: The move reflects growing concern that AI companies could undermine the business model that keeps journalism and online content viable.
Driving the news: "Free riding isn't just unfair. It's stealing," Cohen said Monday during his keynote for the trade organization's annual leadership meeting in Palm Desert, California.
- "Let me send a message to every company building these large language models," Cohen continued. "Unless you pay for content that AI bots scrape, you will ruin the economic model that makes the content available in the first place."
Zoom in: On Monday, the IAB released proposed draft legislation called the AI Accountability for Publishers Act.
- The legislation is built around common law standard of unjust enrichment and argues AI companies are profiting off publishers' investments without paying for them.
- Cohen compared the current moment to the collapse of local news in the 2000s and warned that unchecked AI scraping could erode the internet into a "shadow of its former self," according to a press release.
- "Only with proper legislation and proper penalties do we believe that this situation will be addressed," he said on Monday to a room of hundreds of advertising executives.
Zoom out: Digital ads have long funded the open web, a business model that the IAB has helped shaped over the past 30 years through standardized formats, measurement and other best practices.
- But AI systems have scraped content without compensation and redirected audiences away from publishers' sites. Last year, Cohen focused his keynote on a similar topic of supporting the open web, particularly the need to invest in quality journalism.
- This year, he framed this moment as the internet splitting between the human web and the agentic web. He called for the industry to do more to protect the human side.
- "Unless we act to protect original human-created content, the internet risks devolving into an echo chamber of recycled, low-quality information," Cohen said.
Between the lines: Publishing executives shared ways they are adapting in the AI era during a Sunday panel at the same conference.
- Hearst Magazine's global chief revenue officer Lisa Ryan Howard said publishers must diversify revenue such as with events and commerce businesses. She also shared an optimistic outlook.
- "This is like a remake," Howard said. "This happened with social. I know AI is massively changing all of our lives ... but it is something that is manageable, as long as we keep our eye on all of those audiences of ours and create high-quality experiences."
What's next: The IAB plans to circulate the draft legislation with lawmakers on the Hill and secure a sponsor.
