Publications sued OpenAI for copyright infringement, but some are now partnering up with it

Publications like The Atlantic, News Corp, and Condé Nast have partnered up with OpenAI, licensing content for use in AI products like ChatGPT and SearchGPT

News publications like The Atlantic and News Corp, along with other publishing brands such as Condé Nast have partnered up with OpenAI, licensing their content for use in AI products like ChatGPT and SearchGPT, according to a Business Insider report.

A symbol for the OpenAI virtual assistant arranged on a smartphone in Riga, Latvia, on Friday, Aug. 16, 2024. (Andrey Rudakov/Bloomberg)

This is in contrast to the time when the New York Times along with eight other papers sued OpenAI for copyright infringement, with allegations that their content was used for training the AI model.

Why are publications partnering up with OpenAI?

As generative AI increasingly becomes integrated within search engines and digital assistants, this is an opportunity for media companies to increase their reach using AI.

This also comes as an attempt by publications to regain revenue lost so far due to the rise of AI and changes in traditional search and social media algorithms.

Media companies also get the benefit of proper attribution and compensation for their intellectual property. For example, the News Corp deal is valued in the hundreds of millions of dollars, which provides a substantial revenue stream to news organisations which may otherwise struggle to monetize their digital content, according to the report.

What are the negative aspects of such deals?

Publications partnering up with AI companies can raise concerns surrounding how AI-generated summaries of news stories can potentially overshadow original reporting.

Another concern is the spread of misinformation, which can happen if the generative AI fails to accurately reflect the nuance and context of human-written journalism.