News Corp Inks OpenAI Licensing Deal Potentially Worth More Than $250 Million
Content from News Corp’s publications — which include the Wall Street Journal and the New York Post — is coming to OpenAI under a new multiyear licensing deal.
Under the partnership, OpenAI has permission to display content from News Corp’s publications in response to user questions 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,” according to News Corp.
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According to the Wall Street Journal, the deal could be worth more than $250 million over five years.
In recent months, OpenAI — the creator of the ChatGPT artificial intelligence chatbot — has struck licensing deals with several media companies, including Dotdash Meredith, the Financial Times and Reddit. By contrast, the New York Times and other newspapers have sued OpenAI as well as Microsoft, alleging the tech companies engaged in copyright infringement by using the publishers’ content to train their AI systems.
OpenAI will receive access to current and archived content from News Corp’s major news and information publications, including the Journal, Barron’s, MarketWatch, Investor’s Business Daily, FN and the New York Post; the U.K.’s The Times, The Sunday Times and The Sun; and Australia’s The Australian, news.com.au, the Daily Telegraph, the Courier Mail, the Advertiser and Herald Sun. The partnership does not include access to content from any of News Corp’s other businesses.
In addition to providing content, News Corp will “share journalistic expertise to help ensure the highest journalism standards are present across OpenAI’s offering,” according to the companies’ announcement.
“We believe an historic agreement will set new standards for veracity, for virtue and for value in the digital age,” News Corp CEO Robert Thomson said in announcing the deal. “We are delighted to have found principled partners in [OpenAI CEO] 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.”
Altman said, “Our 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.”
OpenAI made headlines this week after actor Scarlett Johansson said she turned down the company’s request for her to reprise her role in “Her” to lend her voice to a conversational ChatGPT system — and was “shocked” and “angered” that the company went ahead and used a voice that sounded very similar to hers anyway. Johansson, in a statement provided to Variety, said her lawyers contacted OpenAI to have the voice of Sky, one of the new voices in the GPT-4o chatbot that sounded like her voice, pulled down.
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