PALM SPRINGS, Calif. (February 2, 2026) – The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) today released proposed draft legislation titled the AI Accountability for Publishers Act addressing the large-scale scraping of publisher content by artificial intelligence systems. IAB President and CEO David Cohen announced the proposal at IAB’s Annual Leadership Meeting, outlining the urgent need for legislative action to protect the ad-supported publishing ecosystem.
Statement from David Cohen, President and CEO, Interactive Advertising Bureau:
Today, IAB is releasing proposed draft legislation to address an existential crisis for publishers – the large-scale scraping of their content by AI bots to train large language models and provide AI-driven summaries, often without paying a dime. This problem knows no political boundaries, whether you get your news from the most conservative or liberal news sites. 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.
The internet was built by publishers and sustained by digital ads that funded their publications. Digital advertising provides revenue streams for publishers and content creators alike, which allows them to offer everything from small blogs to Pulitzer Prize-winning journalism for free. Importantly, the publishing “long tail” has enabled more writers, bloggers, and content creators to publish their work, connect directly with audiences, and build sustainable businesses. But the content that keeps us going online is under threat from the misuse of artificial intelligence. The companies that are training and building these AI tools are free riding on the investments made by publishers who make their content available on the internet in return for users seeing ads. That simply isn’t fair, and unless they begin to pay for content that AI bots collect, they will undermine the economic model that makes the content available in the first place.
The current environment is reminiscent of the fall of local news publishers in the mid-2000s. As ad revenues shifted to technology platforms, thousands of local news outlets closed their doors, leading to “news deserts” with real hits to local accountability and information access. Online publishers today are facing a similar situation. While some currently have the resources to challenge AI companies’ practices in court, litigation can take years. We simply don’t have the time for litigation to play out, have courts decide the issues differently, and then have the Supreme Court finally render a decision. In the next few years, the ad-supported publishing industry, as we know it, will be a shell of itself. Unless there is immediate legislative action, we’ll be left with a few premium publications that survive on subscriptions, while ad-supported publishers will dwindle. And the irony for AI companies is that if that happens, there will be little quality content left to summarize and poorer data to train on. The internet will be a shadow of its former self.
The proposed language released today is designed to protect publishers from AI companies becoming unjustly enriched. Unjust enrichment is a straightforward concept: if someone receives a benefit at your expense, it would be unfair for them to keep it without paying for it. This concept is so fundamental that it has literally been around since the Romans. That’s why we have built our proposed language around the concept of unjust enrichment. It’s basic fairness: you take my content, you pay for it.
About IAB
The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) empowers the media and marketing industries to thrive in the digital economy. Its membership comprises more than 700 leading media companies, brands, agencies, and the technology firms responsible for selling, delivering, and optimizing digital ad marketing campaigns. The trade group fields critical research on interactive advertising, while also educating brands, agencies, and the wider business community on the importance of digital marketing. In affiliation with the IAB Tech Lab, IAB develops technical standards and solutions. IAB is committed to professional development and elevating the knowledge, skills, expertise, and collaboration of the workforce across the industry. Through the work of its public policy office in Washington, D.C., the trade association advocates for its members and promotes the value of the interactive advertising industry to legislators and policymakers. Founded in 1996, IAB is headquartered in New York City.
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