Overview

• On its fourth-quarter earnings call, CEO Robert Thomson publicly admonished President Trump for allowing AI engines to profit from his books by cannibalizing their sales.
• Thomson quipped that Trump’s The Art of the Deal has turned into “The Art of the Steal” as AI models repurpose authors’ work without permission.
• He revealed that News Corp is in advanced talks with several AI companies to license its journalistic and publishing content.
• The legal push builds on News Corp’s lawsuit against Perplexity AI for allegedly training models on the Wall Street Journal, New York Post and HarperCollins content without authorization.
• Thomson reiterated the company’s “woo-and-sue” strategy of courting partnerships while prepared to litigate to defend intellectual property rights.