News Corp. strikes content licensing deal with OpenAI
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News Corp., the parent company to The Wall Street Journal, on Wednesday announced a long-anticipated, multiyear deal to license its archived and current content to ChatGPT parent OpenAI.
Why it matters: The news industry has split over whether to work with or challenge AI firms — and the Journal's biggest rival, The New York Times, opted to sue OpenAI and its parent Microsoft instead of striking a deal.
- The Times claimed billions in statutory damages in its lawsuit against the two companies, based on a large number of filed copyright restorations for its work.
Details: In a statement, News Corp. said OpenAI has permission to display content from the mastheads of media outlets owned by News Corp. in response to user queries and to enhance its products, "with the ultimate objective of providing people the ability to make informed choices based on reliable information and news sources."
- News Corp. is parent to hundreds of newspapers globally across the U.S., U.K. and Australia. The deal only gives OpenAI permission to access a portion of them.
- OpenAI will receive access to current and archived content from News Corp.'s major news publications, including publications within its Dow Jones publishing group, such as The Wall Street Journal, Barron's, MarketWatch, Investor's Business Daily, FN and New York Post.
- It will also get access to some international outlets such as The Times, The Sunday Times and The Sun in the U.K.; The Australian and the Herald Sun in Australia; and others.
- In a statement, News Corp. said it will also share "journalistic expertise" with OpenAI "to help ensure the highest journalism standards are present across OpenAI's" products.
Zoom out: News Corp. has a long history of experimenting with new technologies, but it hasn't always been successful.
- It famously purchased MySpace for $580 million in 2005, only to sell it six years later for $35 million.
- It launched a news aggregation app called Knewz in 2020, only to shutter the app 18 months later due to a lack of profitability.
The big picture: Unlike music and book publishers, news outlets have not presented a unified front in their fight for copyright protection from AI companies.
- While several major media publishers have opted to strike deals with OpenAI — such as Politico parent Axel Springer, Financial Times and The Associated Press — others have chosen to sue.
- In addition to The New York Times, eight prominent U.S. newspapers owned by investment giant Alden Global Capital sued OpenAI and Microsoft for copyright infringement last month.
Go deeper: Sue or make a deal? News industry divides over AI
