Two more media companies have signed licensing agreements with OpenAI, allowing their content to be used to train its AI models and be shared inside of ChatGPT. The Atlantic and Vox Media — The Verge’s parent company — both announced deals with OpenAI on Wednesday.
OpenAI has been quickly signing partnerships across the media world as it seeks to license training data and avoid copyright lawsuits. It’s recently reached deals with News Corp (The Wall Street Journal, the New York Post, and The Daily Telegraph), Axel Springer (Business Insider and Politico), DotDash Meredith (People, Better Homes & Gardens, Investopedia, Food & Wine, and InStyle), the Financial Times, and The Associated Press.
The deals appear to range in price based on the number of publications included. News Corp’s deal with OpenAI is estimated to be worth $250 million over the next five years, according to the Journal, while the deal with the Financial Times is believed to be worth $5 to $10 million. Terms for the deals with The Atlantic and Vox Media weren’t disclosed.
OpenAI has been trying to avoid copyright lawsuits over training data and attribution
The agreements also cover how content from the publishers is displayed inside of ChatGPT. Content from Vox Media — including articles from The Verge, Vox, New York Magazine, Eater, SBNation, and their archives — and The Atlantic will get attribution links when it’s cited.
Vox Media will begin sharing content with OpenAI beginning next week, Lauren Starke, a Vox Media spokesperson, tells The Verge. Starke declined to share the terms of the deal. Vox Media says in a press release that it will use OpenAI’s technology to “enhance its affiliate commerce product, The Strategist Gift Scout” and expand its ad data platform, Forte.
The Atlantic says it is developing a microsite called Atlantic Labs, where its teams can experiment with developing AI tools “to serve its journalism and readers better.” Anna Bross, a spokesperson for The Atlantic, declined to disclose the terms of its deals in an email to The Verge.
The deals also appear to provide OpenAI with protection against copyright lawsuits. Content creators ranging from comedians to newspapers have argued that OpenAI’s training of its tools on their work — and ChatGPT’s subsequent ability to recite parts of their work — is a violation of their copyright.
The New York Times is currently suing OpenAI and Microsoft for copyright infringement over ChatGPT and Microsoft Copilot. The paper has said it’s spent $1 million so far on the lawsuit. The New York Daily News, the Chicago Tribune, The Intercept, and six other publishers later filed a lawsuit over similar claims.