Japan's news industry association issued a statement Wednesday demanding generative artificial intelligence service providers obtain permits from member media organizations in order to use their news content and ensure accuracy.

The Japan Newspaper Publishers and Editors Association, whose members also include broadcasters, said in the statement that generative AI service providers have expanded their businesses in defiance of the association's repeated requests for them to gain permission.

In particular, AI-assisted online search services called retrieval-augmented generation, or RAG, offered by Google and Microsoft, among others, is highly likely to not only infringe news organizations' copyrights but damage their trustworthiness, the association pointed out.

In the RAG services, AI answers questions asked by users in a written form by digging related information out of online sources.

Sometimes generated answers are identical with original news stories, or sometimes they are inaccurate due to inappropriate diversion and processing of such original content, the association noted, adding that another problem is that AI does not correct wrong answers.

Referring to a number of copyright infringement cases, it stressed that RAG service providers must obtain permits to use protected news content as the services do not meet legal conditions for "minor exploitation" of copyright works allowed without right holders' consent.

Unless such "freeriding" of content is regulated, media organizations' content will die out, causing irreversible harm to the foundation of democracy and national culture, the association warned, urging the government to promptly review laws on intellectual properties.

Furthermore, the news industry group expressed concern over "zero-click searches," in which many users are satisfied with RAG services and do not access the websites of the information sources, saying it can easily be imagined that a significant disadvantage to conventional media will be produced.