OpenAI CEO Sam Altman speaks at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on January 18, 2024.
Stefan Wermuth | Bloomberg | Getty Images
OpenAI announced on Tuesday a partnership with Condé Nast, in which the Microsoft-The AI company’s supported products, such as ChatGPT and SearchGPT, will be able to display content from Vogue, The New Yorker, Condé Nast Traveler, GQ, Architectural Digest, Vanity Fair, Wired, Bon Appétit and other outlets.
“With the introduction of our SearchGPT prototype, we are testing new search capabilities that make finding information and trusted content sources faster and more intuitive,” OpenAI wrote in a blog post. “We combine our conversational models with information from the web to give you fast and timely answers with clear and relevant sources.”
OpenAI added that the SearchGPT prototype offers direct links to news and that the company plans to “integrate the best of these features directly into ChatGPT in the future.”
It’s the latest in a recent trend of some media outlets joining forces with AI startups like OpenAI to strike content deals.
In July, Perplexity AI unveiled a revenue-sharing model for publishers after more than a month of accusations of plagiarism. Media and content platforms including Fortune, Time, Entrepreneur, The Texas Tribune, Der Spiegel and WordPress.com were the first to join the company’s “Publisher Program.”
OpenAI and Time magazine announced a “multi-year content agreement” in June that will allow OpenAI to access current and archived articles from more than 100 years of Time’s history. OpenAI will be able to display Time content in ChatGPT’s chatbot in response to user questions, according to press releaseand use Time’s content “to improve its products” or, more likely, to train its AI models.
OpenAI announced a similar partnership in May with News Corp., allowing OpenAI to access current and archived articles from the Wall Street Journal, MarketWatch, Barron’s, New York Post and other publications. Reddit also announced in May that it would partner with OpenAI, allowing the company to train its AI models on Reddit content.
Other news publications and media outlets are aggressively trying to protect their businesses as AI-generated content becomes more prevalent.
The Center for Investigative Reporting, the nation’s oldest nonprofit newsroom, sued OpenAI and lead backer Microsoft sued in federal court in June for alleged copyright infringement, following similar lawsuits from publications including The New York Times, The Chicago Tribune and The New York Daily News.
In December, The New York Times filed a lawsuit against Microsoft and OpenAI, alleging copyright violations related to their journalistic content appearing in ChatGPT training data. The Times said it is seeking to hold Microsoft and OpenAI accountable for “billions of dollars in statutory and actual damages” related to the “unlawful copying and use of the Times’ unique and valuable works,” according to a filing in U.S. District Court for the South. New York Region. OpenAI disagreed with the Times’ characterization of the facts.
The Chicago Tribune, along with seven other papers, followed with a suit in April.
