Brazilian news outlets use AI and negotiate licensing for journalistic content

Journalism faces a paradox: its content feeds large language models without what is considered adequate compensation, while newsrooms use artificial intelligence to cut costs, automate tasks and launch products. The issue was discussed at an event organized by the Observatório da Imprensa and the Instituto para o Desenvolvimento do Jornalismo (Projor), with data from a COM+ study at the University of São Paulo’s School of Communications and Arts, based on interviews with executives conducted between April and May this year.

The study identified uses including transcription, translation, comment analysis, headline and social-media artwork generation, visual reconstruction and voice cloning. It also recorded products such as chatbots, fact-checking and transcription tools, and hyperlocal services. The research classified Folha de S.Paulo, O Estado de S. Paulo and UOL as revenue diversifiers; Núcleo Jornalismo, Aos Fatos and Agência Tatu as independent pioneers; and Grupo Globo as a strategic orchestrator. UOL has an agreement with OpenAI, according to the article.