ChatGPT owner OpenAI strikes deal with news publishers to use content to train its AI

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News content from Politico, Business Insider and other European outlets will be used to build OpenAI’s artificial intelligence systems after the start-up reached an agreement with the media multinational Axel Springer SE.

OpenAI, which brought AI into the public sphere with its chatbot ChatGPT, said that they are exploring the potential for AI-empowered journalism.

OpenAI agreed to pay the media company tens of millions of euros to use its content to build its generative AI systems as part of a three-year deal, Bloomberg reported, though it has not been confirmed how much the deal is worth.

The deal comes as many generative AI companies argue they have the right to train their systems on copyrighted material without permission. However, this has resulted in lawsuits, such as the one against OpenAI, Microsoft and GitHub who allegedly violated copyright law by using images from AI art tools Midjourney and Stability AI.

It is the second time OpenAI has reached an agreement with a news company. In July, the start-up said it would license some of the archives from The Associated Press news agency to train its models.

“We’re excited to have shaped this global partnership between Axel Springer and OpenAI — the first of its kind,” Axel Springer CEO Mathias Döpfner said in a statement.

“We want to explore the opportunities of AI-empowered journalism — to bring quality, societal relevance and the business model of journalism to the next level.”

The deal will also allow OpenAI to add recent Axel Springer-published articles to OpenAI’s viral AI-powered chatbot ChatGPT.

Users of the chatbot will also be able to receive summaries of “selected articles”, including those behind paywalls, from Axel Springer publications, which will be attributed to the media company.

Axel Springer news companies also consist of other European media outlets such as Axel Springer Polska and Welt.