OpenAI Strikes Multi-Year Content Deal with News Corp Amid Copyright Scrutiny

In the midst of escalating scrutiny over the usage of copyrighted content in training AI models, OpenAI, alongside tech giants Microsoft and Google, has sealed a significant multi-year agreement with News Corp. The deal, valued at a staggering $250 million over five years, marks a pivotal moment for both the realms of journalism and technology.

As reported by The Wall Street Journal, OpenAI, renowned for its creation of ChatGPT, will integrate news content from News Corp into its systems. This collaboration grants OpenAI access to a plethora of current and archived content from News Corp’s extensive publications, encompassing prestigious titles like The Wall Street Journal, The New York Post, The Times, The Sunday Times, Barron’s, and MarketWatch, among others.

Under the terms of the agreement, OpenAI will leverage this repository of news content to refine and enhance its artificial intelligence models, potentially incorporating responses drawn from News Corp’s mastheads to user inquiries.

Furthermore, News Corp pledges to contribute its journalistic expertise to uphold the highest standards of journalism across OpenAI’s offerings, as articulated in the press release accompanying the deal. However, specifics regarding the inclusion of editorial or opinion content and its integration into OpenAI’s models, whether in the free iteration or future paid models like GPT-4, remain undisclosed.

OpenAI’s CEO, Sam Altman, hailed the agreement as transformative, emphasizing its profound implications for both the journalism and technology sectors.

While such licensing agreements are commonplace for large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT, the issue of data ownership remains contentious. Notably, The New York Times has taken a divergent approach, opting to pursue legal action against OpenAI and Microsoft for unauthorized content usage, a move that may potentially pit the newspaper against AI-powered tools like ChatGPT as a source of news.

Meanwhile, the impact of the News Corp deal on the organization’s workforce looms uncertain. Reports suggest impending layoffs at News Corp, raising questions about the ramifications of this collaboration on journalists and editors within the media conglomerate.

Amidst the evolving landscape of AI, journalism, and copyright, OpenAI’s partnership with News Corp exemplifies a convergence of interests that promises to reshape the future of information dissemination and technological advancement.