ChatGPT maker, OpenAI has signed a deal valued at over $250 million with a media conglomerate, News Corp, to access content from the Wall Street Journal (WSJ), The Sun, New York Post, The Times, The Daily Telegraph, and other news outlets owned by News Corp.
According to a statement from the parties, New York-based media giant News Corp will provide OpenAI access to its news content. This will allow the chatbot to base its answers to users’ queries on reliable news sources.
The deal gives OpenAI access to current and archived content from News Corp’s major news and information publications, including Barron’s, MarketWatch, Investor’s Business Daily, FN, The Sunday Times; The Australian, news.com.au, The Courier Mail, The Advertiser, and Herald Sun; and others.
In addition to providing content, News Corp will share journalistic expertise to help ensure the highest journalism standards are present across OpenAI’s offering.
The deal’s value
While OpenAI’s statement was silent on the value of the deal, which came as the biggest for any AI company, The Wall Street Journal, which is one of the media under the conglomerate put the value at over $250 million.
“The deal could be worth more than $250 million over five years, including compensation in the form of cash and credits for use of OpenAI technology, according to people familiar with the situation,” the platform reported.
Commenting on the deal, the Chief Executive of News Corp., Robert Thomson, said the historic agreement will set new standards for veracity, for virtue and value in the digital age.
“We are delighted to have found principled partners in Sam Altman and his trusty, talented team who understand the commercial and social significance of journalists and journalism. This landmark accord is not an end, but the beginning of a beautiful friendship in which we are jointly committed to creating and delivering insight and integrity instantaneously.”
CEO of OpenAI, Sams Altman said the partnership with News Corp is a proud moment for journalism and technology.
“We greatly value News Corp’s history as a leader in reporting breaking news around the world, and are excited to enhance our users’ access to its high quality reporting. Together, we are setting the foundation for a future where AI deeply respects, enhances, and upholds the standards of world-class journalism,” he said.
More insights
The media content deal signed by OpenAI came as the AI race heats up with players trying to take the lead. OpenAI’s main rival, Google, also recently announced some major updates to its LLM, Gemini recently as the former unveiled ChatGPT-4o. However, OpenAI seems to be ahead in terms of content deals with media platforms.
Earlier in April, the ChatGPT maker inked a similar deal with the UK’s Financial Times (FT) to allow the AI company to use its content to train AI models and collaborate on developing new AI products and features.
Before that, OpenAI had signed a content deal with German publisher, Axel Springer, the AP, Le Monde, and Prisa Media in France and Spain respectively.
Last December the New York Times had alleged that its copyrighted content was used by the AI giant to train models without a license. OpenAI disputed that. However, the latest deals with publishers are targeted at reducing the risks of further lawsuits from publishers.
