OpenAI in talks with CNN, Fox and Time to license content

San Francisco - OpenAI is in talks with CNN, Fox and Time to license their work, according to people familiar with the matter, in a growing effort to secure access to news content to build out its artificial intelligence (AI) products, while facing allegations it is ripping off copyrighted materials.

The maker of ChatGPT is seeking to cut deals with numerous producers of news, video and other digital media that can be used to make the AI chatbot more accurate, relevant and up to date.

OpenAI is also battling lawsuits alleging copyright infringement.

It is discussing licensing articles from CNN that it can use to train ChatGPT and also featuring CNN’s content in its products, according to one of the sources. CNN and Fox are negotiating not just around licensing text, but also video and image content, the sources said.

CNN and Fox declined to comment.

Time’s chief executive Jessica Sibley said in a statement that the publisher “is in discussions with OpenAI, and we are optimistic about reaching an agreement that reflects the fair value of our content”.

OpenAI told Bloomberg News last week that it is talking to dozens of publishers about licensing deals, but did not cite specific companies. These partnerships are key to OpenAI’s future as it is balancing the need for updated, accurate data to develop its models, with public scrutiny about where that data is sourced from.

One of the companies the AI start-up had been in talks with, The New York Times,

sued OpenAI and Microsoft late in December

for using the publication’s articles without permission.

In a blog post on Jan 8, pushing back at the Times’ lawsuit, OpenAI said it has “pursued partnerships with news organisations” to train its AI systems on “non-publicly available content” and show “real-time content with attribution” in ChatGPT.

OpenAI said it is in discussions with the News/Media Alliance, a trade group that represents over 2,200 media outlets worldwide, “to explore opportunities, discuss their concerns, and provide solutions”. The AI start-up has also been in conversations with Gannett, News Corp and IAC, according to recent reporting from The New York Times.

Some other large media companies are prepared to enter into talks with OpenAI.

“We have had prior dialogue with a wide range of developers, including OpenAI, which we expect may now transition into commercial discussions about the use of our journalism to build and power their products,” Guardian News & Media, which publishes The Guardian, said in a statement.

OpenAI recently inked a multi-year licensing deal with Politico’s parent company Axel Springer for tens of millions of dollars.

In July, OpenAI announced an agreement with the Associated Press for an undisclosed amount.

Not all big publishers are rushing into negotiations with OpenAI, however. The Washington Post has not been in talks with OpenAI in recent months, according to a spokesperson for the publisher.

One media executive, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the company is considering taking legal action against OpenAI, similar to The New York Times.

A key concern for publishers is compensation. The Information previously reported that OpenAI has offered publishers US$1 million (S$1.3 million) to US$5 million a year to license their articles. That range is considered too low for certain top publishers, according to people familiar with the matter.

One media executive, who asked not to be named discussing private matters, was sceptical that a productive agreement could be reached with AI companies until the courts clarify how copyright law applies to generative AI. Some in the industry are also calling on the United States Congress to step in.

On Jan 10, a Senate Judiciary sub-committee held a hearing about the oversight of AI in journalism.

During the hearing, Conde Nast CEO Roger Lynch urged Congress to issue rules saying that copyrighted content must require a licence to be used for commercial generative AI.

“Current generative AI tools have been built with stolen goods,” he said.

Several people familiar with media negotiations also stressed the importance of how OpenAI will feature publisher content, and how much traffic would be referred back to media sites to increase their audience.

OpenAI has said that one of the goals of its negotiations is to display real-time content from publishers with attribution.

The stakes are high for OpenAI to maintain access to copyrighted works. In a January submission to Britain’s House of Lords, OpenAI said “it would be impossible to train today’s leading AI models without using copyrighted materials”, given how much online content is protected by copyright.

“Limiting training data to public domain books and drawings created more than a century ago might yield an interesting experiment, but would not provide AI systems that meet the needs of today’s citizens,” the company said. BLOOMBERG