OpenAI has announced a multi-year global partnership with News Corp, giving its AI models access to current and archived content from major publications, including The Wall Street Journal, Barron's, and The New York Post. The deal is the latest in a string of licensing agreements with media companies, including The Associated Press, the Financial Times, and Axel Springer.
News Corp's chairman, Robert Thomson, hailed the deal as an "historic agreement" that will set new standards for journalism in the digital age. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman echoed these sentiments, stating that the partnership is a "proud moment for journalism and technology." The deal grants OpenAI permission to display content from News Corp mastheads and use it to enhance its AI products, with the ultimate goal of providing users with reliable information.
The financial terms of the News Corp deal remain undisclosed, although The Wall Street Journal reported it could be worth up to $250 million over five years, citing unnamed sources. Despite this lucrative deal, concerns remain among journalists and publishers about the implications of AI on their industry. Some worry about not being compensated fairly for the use of their content by AI technologies.
The company has faced a wave of lawsuits from publishers, including The New York Times, The New York Daily News, and The Chicago Tribune, accusing it of copyright infringement. These publishers argue that OpenAI's AI models have been trained on their copyrighted content without authorization, creating chatbots that now compete with them as sources of information.