Publishers Urge UK Prime Minister to Regulate AI 'Stealth Bots'

Publishers, including the Daily Mail, have jointly urged the UK Prime Minister to introduce legislation targeting anonymous artificial intelligence "stealth bots" that extract content from websites. In a unified letter, they advocated for a new law requiring online bots to disclose their identity and intended use of accessed information.

The publishers warned that without swift action, the information industry risks entering a "doom loop" that threatens both news organizations and the AI giants reliant on their data. "The case for transparency is clear," the letter stated. "What is missing is a decision to act."

They argued that if creators of credible information do not receive value for their work, the availability of reliable information will decline. Conversely, AI models could degrade as they increasingly process their own misinformation-generated content. The publishers emphasized that the harm is immediate, with unidentifiable bots acquiring valuable content, imposing costs on businesses, and weakening the market for trustworthy information.

Signatories to the letter included Daily Mail CEO Danny Groom, along with executives from The Times, Financial Times, The Telegraph, The Sun, The Express, The Guardian, Condé Nast, and the online forum Reddit. Bots are now responsible for over half of global web traffic, with many engaging in "scraping" data to train artificial intelligence models.

Currently, many bots operate anonymously or impersonate trusted sources such as Google. Others are disguised as ordinary consumer devices, making their activity appear as legitimate human traffic. The scraped information is frequently sold to AI firms on the black market, bypassing compensation to the original content creators.

The publishers also raised concerns that similar methods could be exploited by hostile states for cyberattacks, posing a threat to national security.

A bill proposed by Conservative shadow minister Damian Hinds, which reportedly mirrors legislation before the U.S. Congress, is scheduled for its second reading in the House of Commons. This bill suggests establishing a public register of bots managed by the online regulator Ofcom, enabling publishers to control access to their websites.

Hinds commented, "If someone can come along and just take something you've made, in time people will just stop producing those things. This Bill doesn't seek to ban anything, just to let content owners see who is taking their content, so they can decide if they're happy with that."

Allison Gardner, a Labour MP and member of the House of Commons Technology Committee, expressed support for the bill, stating, "AI firms must be honest and transparent about how they access training data. Publishers deserve to be paid for their journalism, and high-quality, fact-checked information must be protected."

Theo Bamber, chief executive of the News Media Association, added, "The US is already moving, and Britain should lead alongside it."

Last year, the Labour government's proposal to exempt AI firms from copyright law to stimulate the UK's technology sector faced significant opposition from artists, including Sir Elton John, Sir Paul McCartney, and Dua Lipa. Sir Elton John had previously criticized the government's plan as being devised by "absolute losers."