News Corp Australia has blocked journalists from using the popular transcription service Otter.ai, notifying staff identified using the service through their work email accounts that it was blocking access by September 13.
Otter.ai automatically transcribes recorded audio and uses AI to assist in the accuracy of its transcription. It is one of the most popular transcription apps on the market, particularly among journalists.
In an internal email sent to affected staff on September 5, seen by Crikey, News Corp chief technology officer Julian Delany said News Corp was “setting the highest standard for ethical use of AI in our business”.
Delany said the company had recently undertaken “evaluation work” that includes “assessing existing AI applications and tool deployments found across NCA (News Corp Australia) that currently are not approved for use”. The email requested staff remove the application and said they would not be able to use the service on their News Corp devices once it was blocked.
Delany did not provide staff with an alternative, approved transcription option.
Crikey asked Delany whether News Corp Australia had consulted journalists before notifying them that Otter.ai was no longer approved for use, or whether management was aware of the ubiquity of services like Otter.ai. Crikey also asked what the prevalence of the use of Otter.ai specifically was at News Corp Australia, according to the company’s review, whether it would be providing an alternative service, and whether there would be any impacts on journalists who (as is understood to be common practice) continued to use Otter.ai in their line of work but through personal accounts and devices.
Delany did not respond for comment.
News Corp journalists who spoke to Crikey on the condition of anonymity expressed their dismay at the announcement, with one calling the decision “borderline mental”.
“It is a product integral in workflow,” one said.
Another journalist told Crikey of their “frustration” at the position they had been put in by management, with no alternative yet made clear to staff.
“If they had said, ‘Go use this instead,’ we’d be sweet,” they said.
News Corp announced a deal in May with artificial intelligence giant OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT. It will give OpenAI’s generative AI platforms (including ChatGPT) the licence to access content from News Corp publications, including the Herald Sun, The Daily Telegraph, The Courier Mail, The Advertiser, The Australian and news.com.au.
In July, News Corp Australia executive chair Michael Miller said media companies shouldn’t be “close-minded to working with AI companies”, defending the deal at the National Press Club in June.
It is a divergence from the likes of The New York Times, which in December 2023 joined several other newspapers, including the Chicago Tribune and The Denver Post, in suing OpenAI, accusing the company of using copyrighted articles without permission to train and feed their generative AI products. An OpenAI statement in January 2024 claimed the case was “without merit”. The case continues.
