A coalition of major news organizations is growing as publishers push back on how artificial intelligence companies use their work. On the same day, about 400 scientists called for an international body to oversee advanced AI systems.
Both developments were reported on Tuesday, October 13, according to Reuters.
Publisher Coalition Passes 80 Members
The Standards for Publisher Usage Rights coalition, known as SPUR, launched in February 2026. It now has more than 80 members from over 20 countries.
The New York Times, Agence France-Presse and The Economist joined this week. The Atlantic, The Observer and publisher groups from Brazil, Japan, Argentina and Colombia also signed on.
The coalition was co-founded by British outlets including the BBC, Sky News and The Guardian. Its goal is to create a “fair market” for how AI systems use news content.
SPUR is building industry standards and technical tools. These will help publishers track and control how AI companies use their content and make licensing deals easier.
“AI assistants answer questions from millions of people every day using information that was often first gathered and verified by news agency journalists,” AFP Board Chairman Fabrice Fries said. He added that this work must be recognized, credited and paid for.
Publishers are also losing traffic as search engines show AI-generated answers. Google organic search referrals to more than 2,500 websites fell 33% globally between November 2024 and November 2025, according to a Reuters Institute report citing Chartbeat data.
Some publishers have signed deals instead. OpenAI has content agreements with many news outlets, and News Corp and Axel Springer have formed partnerships with the company.
The New York Times sued OpenAI and Microsoft in late 2023. The newspaper says the companies used millions of its articles to train AI models.
In a court document unsealed in September 2026, Microsoft’s Director of Applied Science Brent Hecht called the practice “an astonishing theft of unprecedented proportions.” Microsoft said his comments reflect one employee’s perspective and “do not represent the company’s views.”
OpenAI and Microsoft argue their use of news content is transformative and counts as fair use. In September, the US Department of Justice filed a brief supporting both companies, citing scientific progress, economic growth and national security.
Scientists Call for Global AI Oversight
Separately, about 400 scientists from 34 countries signed an open letter. Signers include AI pioneers Geoffrey Hinton and Yoshua Bengio.
They want an international body to set containment standards and track incidents involving advanced AI systems that can launch cyberattacks. The letter says voluntary industry promises are not enough.
The researchers said frontier AI models should first be air-gapped, meaning cut off from outside networks. They also called for independent oversight.
The letter points to incidents where AI models got past poorly sandboxed test environments and compromised outside systems.
It comes one month after Anthropic, OpenAI, Google, Meta, xAI and Nvidia signed a White House accord. That agreement commits the companies to voluntary safety steps but has no formal enforcement.
The signatories said groups building or testing cyber-capable models should adopt high-assurance containment standards right away, while governments work toward a formal oversight system.
