The French media do not want to let OpenAI use their content for free. According to the newspaper The echoesseveral French media groups have blocked the access of OpenAI, the origin of ChatGPT, to their online news sites, as have already done the New York Times, CNN or Reuters abroad.
The daily recalls that, on August 8, the American company specializing in artificial intelligence launched its web crawler GPTBot, responsible for collecting data from all Internet sites, in order to train its GPT-4 models and GPT-5. OpenAI, however, leaves the possibility for sites to prohibit access to GPTBot.
Radio France, which pleads in favor of “a reasoned use” of artificial intelligence, thus blocked this summer – on August 10, according to The echoes – GPTBot’s access to the contents of the public group (Radiofrance.fr, Francebleu.fr And Francetvinfo.fr), because he used them “without consent”, said Sibyle Veil, president of Radio France, Monday, August 28.
“There is one thing in this use that does not pass: it is the looting of content without authorization. This summer, we therefore blocked the OpenAI robot which took over our content without our consent”, indicated the leader, at the head of the public radio group since 2018.
A position that remains in the minority
“It’s a matter of consistency. I’ve been fighting in this house for six years to promote the value of audio content and the value of the work of its creators. For this type of position to have an effect, you have to that other media do it too”, she argued to AFP, recalling the similar position adopted in particular by the American newspaper the New York Times.
This decision taken in the middle of the summer remains however a “precautionary measure”, as recently specified on X (ex-Twitter) Laurent Frisch, director of digital and production of Radio France, considering “healthy that OpenAI has given [la] possibility [de lui interdire l’accès] and respect it.”
Other media took the same decision, according to The echoes. This is the case of the France Médias Monde group, which banned GPTBot from accessing its France24.com, RFI.fr and MC-doualiya.com sites. The TF1 group has also blocked the web crawler on its TF1.fr and TF1info.fr sites, as has Publihebdos, a subsidiary of the Sipa Ouest-France group, Who prevented OpenAI from accessing its local news site Actu.fr.
This position remains for the moment a minority in the media landscape. According to The echoes, Le Figaro would not have yet decided on its position, while The world reportedly contacted OpenAI to open discussions, and hopes for an agreement by the end of the year.