Proposed “AI Accountability for Publishers Act” would make it unlawful for AI firms to use scraped content without compensation

The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) released draft federal legislation to curb large-scale scraping of online publisher content by AI systems and ensure publishers are compensated for such use.

The proposed “AI Accountability for Publishers Act” would apply to companies that operate generative AI technologies and scrape publisher content from the internet to train models, produce summaries, or generate derivative output without paying the original content creators. Under the draft language, such activity could become actionable on grounds of unlawful enrichment when done without consent or compensation.

IAB President and CEO David Cohen unveiled the draft text during the organization’s Annual Leadership Meeting in Palm Springs, California, and said the measure is intended to protect the ad-supported publishing ecosystem. “If we continue to allow AI companies to take what they want from publishers for free, there will be few ad-supported publishers left of any kind in just a few years,” Cohen said in remarks posted by the trade group.

The draft legislation, which IAB plans to circulate to lawmakers on Capitol Hill for sponsorship, would create a federal cause of action for publishers whose content is “appropriated, used, collected, processed, sold, or otherwise exploited” by AI systems without compensation or permission. It defines covered activities to include training generative AI systems and output that replicates or substitutes for the original content.

The IAB, a trade association representing hundreds of digital media companies, said in its announcement that the current online advertising model, which underpins funding for news outlets, blogs, and other publishers, is threatened by unlicensed AI scraping. The proposed bill has not yet been introduced in the 119th Congress nor referred to any legislative committee.