News Corp, the parent company of prominent publications like The Wall Street Journal, MarketWatch, and The Sun, has inked a multi-year agreement with OpenAI to integrate news content from its portfolio of publications into ChatGPT.
This deal grants OpenAI access to both current news and archived articles from News Corp’s publications, enabling the enhancement of its AI models through data enrichment. While specific financial details of the arrangement were not disclosed, a report from The Wall Street Journal suggested that News Corp stands to receive approximately $250 million over a five-year period in cash and credits.
News Corp’s Chief Executive, Robert Thomson, reportedly conveyed in a memo to employees on Wednesday that the agreement recognizes the value of premium journalism.
He emphasized that the digital era has seen the rise of distribution platforms, often overshadowing content creators, and stressed the importance of seizing the opportunity to prioritize quality journalism.
The emergence of generative AI, exemplified by OpenAI’s ChatGPT launched in late 2022, has revolutionized interactive technology. However, the efficacy of AI-powered chatbots is contingent upon the quality of the underlying data used for model training.
Traditionally, AI companies have relied on scraping publicly available internet data, sometimes without consent from creators. However, there is a recent trend of forging financial partnerships with news entities to ensure access to current and credible information for AI model training.
OpenAI has been at the forefront of such collaborations, having announced alliances with various industry players, including Reddit, the Financial Times, and Axel Springer, among others. Additionally, News Corp recently secured a deal with Google, estimated to be between $5 and $6 million, aimed at training AI models.
The momentum for such partnerships extends beyond OpenAI and Google. Meta, the parent company of Facebook, Messenger, WhatsApp, and Instagram, as well as a producer of AI-powered devices like smart glasses, is reportedly considering similar agreements with news publishers to bolster its AI capabilities.
For struggling news outlets, revenue generated from AI companies represents a burgeoning income stream. However, some publishers remain cautious about such collaborations.
Notably, The New York Times has taken legal action against OpenAI and Microsoft for using its content to train AI systems, while other prominent publications like the BBC and The Verge have opted to block OpenAI from scraping their websites.
