According to foreign media reports, some large publishers in the US media industry have been in secret negotiations with OpenAI for several months, and their negotiations have focused on a thorny issue: the price and terms of licensing content to OpenAI. As a result, the New York Times sued Microsoft and OpenAI this week for copyright infringement, exposing the inside story of their negotiations. The New York Times said it had been negotiating licensing agreements with Microsoft and OpenAI for several months before filing the lawsuit.
Many major media participated in the negotiations
People familiar with the matter said the New York Times was not the only media outlet involved in the negotiations. Gannett, the largest newspaper company in the United States, News Corp., the parent company of The Wall Street Journal, IAC, the digital giant behind The Daily Beast, and magazine publisher Dotdash Meredith have been in talks with OpenAI.The News/Media Alliance, which represents more than 2,200 news organizations in North America, has also been negotiating with OpenAI to develop a deal framework that would work for its members.
Microsoft has also been negotiating with these media outlets. Microsoft is OpenAI’s largest investor and has integrated the latter’s technology into its own products. "We have had in-depth conversations with a number of publishers and look forward to continuing discussions in the future," Microsoft spokesman Frank Shaw said.
OpenAI said in a statement that the company respects the rights of content creators and owners and believes they should benefit from artificial intelligence (AI) technology. OpenAI also cited the licensing agreements they reached with the Associated Press and German publishing giant Axel Springer as examples to demonstrate the results of their negotiations.
"We continue to have productive conversations with many media organizations around the world about their questions about AI," OpenAI spokesperson Kayla Wood said in a statement. "We are optimistic and will continue to find mutually beneficial ways to collaborate to support a rich news ecosystem."
In fact, companies such as OpenAI and Microsoft have been seeking to reach licensing agreements with news organizations to train AI systems that can generate human-like prose. These systems in turn drive applications such as chatbots, allowing OpenAI, Microsoft and others to generate revenue from them.
Press concerns
Nearly a dozen publishing industry executives and media business experts said the rapid development of AI applications in the market has created thorny issues for the future of the media industry and complicated negotiations.
More than a decade ago, news publishers lost most of their traditional advertising business to latecomers such as Google and Facebook.News publishers have had a rocky relationship with technology companies ever since. Publishing executives are wary of licensing content for fear of selling it at too low a price.
“I think part of the reason why news organizations are so cautious about licensing content to OpenAI right now is that their experience over the past 20 years has shown that if they’re not careful, they can attract wolves into the house.” Andrew Morse, publisher of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the flagship newspaper of Cox Media Group, said the company is not currently in talks with OpenAI.
News organizations are also concerned that AI applications may cite their articles to provide inaccurate information, thereby damaging the credibility of these outlets.“We’ve been through a decade of misinformation and disinformation, and that was before AI,” said Ken Doctor, a media analyst and entrepreneur. “Now, with AI, anyone has the ability to further spread and exacerbate misinformation and disinformation. That of course scares the news publishers.”
Some media companies have decided not to pursue commercial deals with OpenAI. Bloomberg, which has a large data terminal business that uses AI, has decided to further advance its artificial intelligence business, people familiar with the matter said. Meanwhile, The Washington Post has not been in talks with OpenAI in recent months.
Over 70 million yuan per year
Still, some news organizations have struck deals with OpenAI.The Associated Press announced an agreement with OpenAI in July this year, authorizing OpenAI to use AP’s news archives. However, the parties did not disclose financial terms.
Axel Springer, the publishing company that owns Politico, Business Insider and other news sites, went a step further. This month it struck a multi-year deal with OpenAI, allowing OpenAI to access its news archive and use newly published articles in apps like ChatGPT. According to people familiar with the matter, the agreement is worth more than $10 million (approximately 70.75 million yuan) per year, including a "performance fee" that depends on the extent to which OpenAI uses its content.
Despite tensions between the journalism industry and OpenAI, some publishing executives have spoken cautiously about AI's potential advantages.Jim Friedlich, CEO of the nonprofit Lenfest Institute for Journalism, owner of The Philadelphia Inquirer, said news organizations and AI companies are “increasingly interdependent” because users expect AI technology to provide reliable information.
"What is important is that the parties reach a settlement, and if possible, reach a settlement as soon as possible. Whether this will take months or years, no one can tell," he said.