182 days to save the world from AI
Revived legislative vigour to take on Big Tech suggests politicians are waking up to the need for speed while they can still make a difference.
A week is a long time in AI. The next six months might seem like a lifetime.
In the last three days, two things will have swung the mood inside Big AI boardrooms, from cocky to rocky. For how long remains to be seen, but two recent events have given some hope to those who think the de facto incumbents of the emerging sector are already becoming Too Big to Slow Down.
First, US Senators whipped the rug out from under the AI party by voting 99-1 to reject a proposed 10-year ban on state-level regulation of AI - meaning individual states can now apply their own laws to AI companies and the use of the tech.
Such local meddling was fiercely opposed by those at the top of the AI food chain who claimed that allowing states to legislate things like kids’ online safety was too detrimental to their share options to be allowed. Also, something something something China.
This is a big deal. If there were no meaningful federal regs in place, a ban on state regs seemed to assure almost unlimited power to Darth Altman et al.
While the subsequent state regs will no doubt be a mix of the mostly sensible, some pork barrelling, and the occasionally inane, it does reset the clock and encourage federal legislators to craft coherent overarching rules which actually have some teeth, versus the current “We’ve tried nothing and are all out of ideas!” non-approach.
The Trump White House has shown it is able to move with startling speed at times, and take the Senate with it, and the next few months are being seen as critical in setting the tone for how AI firms are brought to heel, or not.
Denmark hits the ground running
On the same day, Denmark exploded out of the blocks in the first morning of its 6-month EU Presidency and gave insight into what an ‘AI vs EU’ landscape might look like for years to come, by announcing the country was suing OpenAI for mass theft of the nation’s copyright.
Karen Rønde, CEO of the Danish media copyright body DPCMO, removed any thoughts the timing of the case was coincidental: “Denmark takes over the EU Presidency and a united Danish news industry will sue OpenAI.”
Rønde, an ex-MP, said, “Big tech must respect national laws,” and that the case was about fair competition, preventing market dominance, fostering innovation, and denying “any company the power to undermine rivals, exploit content creators, or distort democracy.”
While the DPCMO is an independent non-profit, it speaks with the authority of the state: it was established by Government act in 2021 to negotiate copyright matters on behalf of all Danish media. Ministers had seen how politicians in Australia, Canada, France and the UK had forced Google and Facebook to deal with local media, and what happened where no such regulatory frameworks existed.
With a mandate from the state, even though DPCMO has been in existence for only four years it has been quite successful in a short space of time, with tech firms including Google doing cash-for-content deals.
No-one should be surprised at the turn of events. Rønde outlined the organisation’s objectives in a widely published op-ed in February 2025, whose opening line gave more than a hint at its goals: “Curbing Big Tech’s power over media outlets requires publishers, journalists, and photographers to speak with one voice. While the Danish news industry has led the way with a collective management organization, this effort would be bolstered by measures to improve enforcement of the European Union’s copyright law.”
And it tends not to prevaricate: when Apple refused to do a deal for use of Danish site content in Apple News widgets, DPCMO simply reported the matter to the police as theft; Apple eventually removed the contested product in Denmark, assumedly rather than set a precedent of doing a deal.
Interestingly, just days before the DPCMO action, the Danish Government revealed world-first plans to give individual Danish citizens anti-deepfake rights over things like appearance, voice, and likeness, while still trying to offer space for comedians to do satirical impressions of techbros and politicians.
Basically, the Danes are in a hurry and believe the next six months are critical. As President of the EU it cannot ramrod laws into effect, but it can hope to set a tone to inspire others and is on a mission to do so before the year is out, with 182 days to go.
The varying pace of change
Meanwhile, as Denmark signals it wants to move at speed and blaze a pathway which other EU nations can follow, the bloc itself is wobbling on enforcing its own existing AI laws – not through lack of will, but arguably because the laws were rolled out so fast lots of people aren’t really sure what they are, or how to comply with them.
Calls grow for a slowdown on implementation timelines of the existing EU AI Act, which is enforceable from next month, for fears it will throttle homegrown AI firms, and for not clarifying to big users of AI what their responsibilities are.
The overlap between laws designed to favour the growth of AI, and laws which give powers to individuals against AI, are the next stage of the ongoing Big Tech vs Governments battle.
Media, and media people, will get caught up in it too, with stakes in both sides of the argument.
But, for those who are convinced the AI boats have sailed, it looks like the regulators have just hopped in a speed boat.
Calling all media and publishing content leaders, product leads, data strategists and tech innovators - we want to hear from you!
We’ve teamed up with State of Digital Publishing to launch a benchmark study assessing first-party personalisation, CDP adoption, and audience engagement in digital media and publishing.
This report will:
Benchmark CDP adoption and performance
Reveal emerging personalisation trends
Identify challenges and ‘Aha’ moments from across the industry
Deliver actionable best practices
Give us 5 minutes to complete the survey and we’ll give you early access to the findings to see how you compare.
Cloudflare: No pay, no scrape
Some welcome news for publishers as Cloudflare blocks AI crawlers by default, meaning bots can no longer hoover up your content for free. Backed by big-name publishers on both sides of the pond, it will let publishers directly charge engines for scraping their content, pushing for fair play or no play at all. Meanwhile, as you weigh up Cloudflare, here are 6 things you can do now to protect content from AI creepy crawlies.
Read
The good AI
We love it when AI just works, and we also love seeing humans kept in the loop when using it too - it’s how our AI toolset GAIA works - so it’s interesting to see how someone like the BBC is using the tech in its newsrooms, with new AI summaries and BBC Style Assist, and full transparency.
Read
Slowly but surely
New data from Oxford’s Reuters Institute reveals that 18 per cent of consumers across 20 markets now pay for online news, nearly double the figure from a decade ago. Growth has been particularly strong in Austria, Switzerland, and Ireland, driven by major news events and clever subscription bundles. The shift is happening, albeit late in some quarters, and those investing in their local stories are starting to see the payoff.
Read
June 2025 Core Update
Google's June 2025 Core Update is in motion. Still to early too see the impact, but Barry Schwartz outlines the details while the rest of us keep an eye on the data screens.
Read
Google trials favourites
Google is trialling a new ''Preferred Sources'' feature that lets users star their favourite news outlets in Top Stories, giving readers more control over what they see and giving publishers a shot at deeper audience loyalty. Try not to overdo the “pin us to your Google feed!” pleas to readers. (But, US and India-based Content Aware readers, don't forget to give us a star!)
Read
More fake mistakes
A VRT NWS investigation uncovered that over half of Elle Belgium's recent articles were AI-generated and attributed to fake journalist profiles, with regional rights-holders Ventures Media backtracking and slapping disclaimers on articles after exposure.
Read
Interviewing Google's biggest headache
Former DOJ antitrust chief Jonathan Kanter sits down with Future Media for a frank chat on Google's court battles, the Chrome sale, data, consumer privacy, and what opportunities lie ahead for the publishing industry - all in a cracking two-part interview with market mover Ricky Sutton.
Read Part 1 & Part 2
Brand builder tips & tricks
From his must-read SEO newsletter Telegraph SEO Director Harry Clarkson-Bennett talks brand visibility and building audience trust in the age of AI.
Read
Testing how AI Mode works
Currently only live in the US, Google's new AI Mode wants you to type longer queries, ask follow-ups, and get AI-powered responses. But after testing it across 10,000 US-based keywords and measuring it up against AI Overviews, SEO experts found consistency isn't part of the package just yet.
Read
Denied
Early in 2023, Sarah Andersen filed a class-action lawsuit accusing AI companies of copyright infringement for using artists' work without permission to train their models, and pushed to see all the datasets they used. This week, a judge ruled the case only concerns the LAION dataset, so any non-LAION data remains under lock and key. A loss for copyright advocates.
Read
AI gets journo backs up
Journalists are rebelling against enforced use of AI. Writers at LexisNexis's Law360 signed a petition demanding mandated ChatGPT-powered tools which monitored their work should be optional, not forced. Meanwhile ex-Washington Post opinion editor bemoans what the use of AI could do to the title’s reputation and prestige.
Read
Google tries to patch things up
Here's a thing that Google hopes will help mend the last few months of traffic freefall: Offerwall, a new tool available through Ad Manager that lets publishers gate content behind ads, surveys, or micro-payments to reclaim what AI search has taken from them. Naturally, it's AI-powered, but do publishers really want more Google AI influencing their revenue? Early testers report some revenue uplift, yet publishers are still waiting on clear visibility into how much AI Overviews are diverting audiences in the first place.
Read