OpenAI has entered the media industry by signing a deal with News Corps to empower its renowned ChatGPT model with journalistic content
ChatGPT developer OpenAI has signed a deal to bring news content from the Wall Street Journal, the New York Post, the Times, and the Sunday Times to the artificial intelligence platform, the company said on Wednesday. The deal will give OpenAI access to current and archived content from all the News Corp’s publications. Earlier this year, OpenAI inked a similar contract with Axel Springer, the parent company of Business Insider and Politico.
The one-after-the-other agreements that OpenAI is venturing into with various news publications underscore its relentless pursuit to train its AI model to become a desired platform for daily news updates. The Wednesday deal comes weeks after the AI heavyweight partnered with the Financial Times to license its content for the development of AI models.
News Corporation is a mass media company that backs the publication of some of the most read newspapers in the world. It is chaired by Lachlan Murdoch. His father, Rupert, serves as chairman emeritus stepping down as chair of News Corp and Fox News last year. The landmark partnership will bring OpenAI a step closer to enhance its AI models’ journalism fluency.
Sam Altman the Chief Executive of OpenAI, 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 user’s 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.”
Details of the deal
As the part of the deal, OpenAI will be able to display content from News Corps – owned outlets within its ChatGPT chatbot, in response to user questions. The startup will also be able to use News Corps’ content to “enhance its products,” or likely, to train its artificial intelligence models. News Corps will also share “journalistic expertise to help ensure the highest journalism standards are present across OpenAI’s offering” as part of the deal, according to a release.
OpenAI will receive access to current and archived content from News Corps’ major news and information publications, including the Wall Street Journal, Barron’s, MarketWatch, Investor’s Business Daily, Financial News, and New York Post; the Times, the Sunday Times, and the Sun; The Australian, news.com.au, The Daily Telegraph, the Courier Mail, the Advertiser, and Herald Sun; and others. The partnership does not include access to content from any of News Corps’ other businesses.
“We believe a historic agreement will set new standards for veracity, for virtue and for value in the digital age,” Robert Thomson CEO of News Corps, said Wednesday in a release. “We are delighted to have found principled partners in Sam Altman and his trusty, talented team who understand the commercial and social significance of journalists and journalism.”
OpenAI on a “deal-spree”
The partnership between OpenAI and News Corps follows Reddit’s announcement on Thursday that it will partner with OpenAI, allowing the ChatGPT maker to train its AI models on Reddit content. As part of that deal, OpenAI will gain access to Reddit’s Data application programming interface, or API, “which provides real-time structured, and unique content for Reddit,” according to a release.
In exchange, Reddit will begin offering certain AI features to users and moderators, powered by OpenAI, which will also become a Reddit advertising partner. Google announced a similar partnership with Reddit in February, allowing the company to train its AI models, such as Gemini, on Reddit content via access to the platform’s API.
Last weeks, OpenAI launched a new artificial intelligence model and desktop version of ChatGPT, along with an updated user interface, the company’s latest effort to expand use of its popular chatbot. The update brings GPT-4 to everyone, including Open AI’s free users, Chief Technology Officer Mira Murati said last week in a livestream event. Murati said the new model, GPT-4o is “much faster,” with improved capabilities in text and audio. OpenAI said it eventually plans to allow users to video chat with ChatGPT.
