In this episode of the RegulatingAI Podcast, host Sanjay Puri is joined by Nicholas Thompson, CEO of The Atlantic, to talk about one of the most pressing issues in AI today: the scraping of content and the future of journalism in an AI-first world.  

✅ Topics covered: 

• The “original sin” of AI companies and scraped content 
• How The Atlantic is navigating AI disruption in publishing 
• Legal and ethical paths forward: lawsuits, licensing, and collaboration 
• Why Thompson thinks AI companies should drive traffic to journalism 
• A peek into The Atlantic's deal with OpenAI 

🔍 Nicholas shares candid takes on balancing innovation and fairness and what the future might look like if we don’t course correct. 

Resources Mentioned: 

https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicholasxthompson/ 

⏱️ Timestamps: 

00:00 - Podcast Highlights 

02:56 - The "Original Sin" of AI Companies - Data Scraping & Compensation 

05:04 - Media vs AI Companies: Finding Fair Value Exchange 

08:19 - Recent Court Rulings: Anthropic & Meta Cases Analysis 

12:19 - The Future of Search & Web Architecture 

16:45 - Generational Impact: How Young People Consume Information 

17:47 - Federal vs State AI Regulation Debate 

21:47 - What AI Developers Actually Want from Regulation 

22:05 - EU AI Act: Over-regulation Concerns 

23:45 - Open Source vs Closed Source AI Models 

24:43 - China's Open Source AI Strategy & US-China Relations 

26:19 - Chip Export Restrictions: Effectiveness & Consequences 

28:41 - US-China AI Cooperation Needs 

29:08 - The "Job Apocalypse" Debate: Dario vs Jensen 

32:48 - Government Role in AI Transition & Retraining 

34:43 - The "First Rung" Problem: Entry-Level Jobs at Risk 

35:51 - AI Medical Diagnosis: Outperforming Human Doctors 

39:07 - AI Companionship: Solution or Danger for Loneliness? 

41:10 - The "Westworld" Risk: AI-Powered Social Media Dystopia 

42:46 - Key AI Thinkers: Audrey Tang & The Vatican's AI Paper 

44:59 - Lightning Round: Quick Takes on AI's Future