Preserving the value of journalistic work in the AI era

Nickel is a raw material for batteries. Journalistic work is a raw material for artificial intelligence. This analogy is simple, but it sufficiently explains the major changes underway in the global digital economy. Law Minister Suparman Andi Agtas’s statement regarding the plan to collect royalties for the commercial utilisation of journalistic work should be read within this framework. The issue is not solely about levies, copyright, or the interests of press companies. More than that, it touches on a fundamental question: who should enjoy the economic value of journalistic work when it is used by digital platforms and artificial intelligence systems to obtain commercial gain? For those who have worked in a newsroom, every piece of news is not merely a string of sentences. It is born from a long process: finding facts, verifying information, interviewing sources, editing manuscripts, weighing ethics, and then being accountable to the public. All these processes require time, cost, expertise, and professional responsibility. Therefore, when journalistic work becomes an important foundation for artificial intelligence, the question of valuing its economic worth becomes increasingly relevant. Artificial intelligence has changed the way society obtains information. Previously, the public opened newspapers, watched news broadcasts, listened to the radio, or accessed online media portals to understand an event. Now, more and more people simply ask an AI machine and receive a concise answer in seconds. This change brings great benefits. Information becomes more accessible, quickly compiled, and practical to use. However, this ease of access to information does not emerge from a vacuum. AI systems learn from data, text, archives, reports, books, documents, and journalistic work produced by humans. This is where a new problem arises. Media outlets incur costs to produce news, but its economic value can be enjoyed by other platforms that process, summarise, or repackage that information in a different format. The public gets answers, the platform gets traffic or revenue, while the original media potentially loses reader visits and advertising income. If left without fair rules of the game, this situation could weaken the journalism ecosystem. Yet, without healthy media, AI will also lose one of its sources of quality information. Artificial intelligence requires accurate data, and information accuracy requires strong journalism. Thus, royalties for journalistic work are not a form of resistance to technology. This is an effort to find a new balance so that digital innovation does not sever the economic chain that supports the production of credible information.