News Corp warns Donald Trump that AI is cannibalizing his books, including the art of contracts.
Owned by billionaire Rupert Murdoch, the company owns dozens of newspapers and television channels around the world, including the Wall Street Journal, The Times (UK), Australia and the New York Post. News Corp also owns Harpercollins, the publisher of the book that published three of Trump's books, but his most famous title, The Art of the Deal, was published by Random House.
Still, it appeared that the company wanted to warn Trump about the impact AI had on publishing.
“In the AI era, if we collectively recognize our potential, we must value the value of our intellectual property,” News Corp said in a statement in its fourth quarter revenue report. “Even the US president is not affected by blatant theft. The president's books still report healthy sales, but are consumed by an AI engine that benefits from his ideas by cannibalizing his concepts and undermines future sales of his books.
“All of a sudden, the art of contract became the art of stealing.”
Media Outlet sued AI companies, including CHATGPT operator Openai, for using content to train AI models without permission. In May, a federal judge rejected an open request from the New York Times to dismiss the case over the use of newspaper content. The Wall Street Journal publisher Dow Jones and the New York Post sued the perplexed AI in October over similar copyright claims.
News Corp's message to Trump also comes after the White House announced last month its “AI Action Plan” for Trump, which saw the relaxation of AI regulations underway under the Biden administration.
In a revenue call Tuesday, News Corporation CEO Robert Thomson said the company is in the midst of “advanced negotiations with several AI companies.”
“It's clear that many of them are now aware of purchasing. [intellectual property] It's just as important as getting semiconductors and ensuring a stable source of energy,” he said, saying it was a mixture of “pleading and appeal.”
“We prefer the former, but we never shun protecting property rights,” he said.
The warning comes at a tense moment between News and the White House. Trump sued The Wall Street Journal after the newspaper released a report that the president once sent Jeffrey Epstein an intimate birthday message containing a sexually suggestive picture of a woman. Trump claimed the report was false and reached an honorable lib. The newspaper requested the judge to dismiss the case.
Murdoch, who also owns Fox News, was once friendly with Trump, but his relationships deteriorated during the president's third presidential election.
The company beat its fourth quarter expectations in its earnings announcement on Tuesday. This is primarily due to an increase in digital subscriptions from Dow Jones, which houses the company's business publications, such as the Wall Street Journal, Baron's and Market Watch. On Monday, News Corp announced that it would launch its sister tabloid in early 2026 at the New York Post in California, known as the California Post.
