The news stories of tomorrow may be written very differently thanks to the recent deals struck between OpenAI and major publishers.
OpenAI has sparked a whirlwind of activity, and controversy, with its recent deals with prominent publishers. While these partnerships could offer significant benefits, they also raise concerns about the future of news, competition in the AI sector, and potential legal battles with those left outside the fold.
Large language models (LLMs), the backbone of systems like ChatGPT, require immense amounts of text data for training. Traditionally, AI developers relied on freely available internet sources.
However, this practice faces these challenges:
- Legal roadblocks: Publishers like The New York Times and Vox Media have blocked OpenAI’s crawlers, and lawsuits alleging copyright infringement pose a major threat
- Quality concerns: Unfiltered web data can be unreliable, inaccurate, or biased, potentially compromising the output of AI models
- Ethical considerations: Using copyrighted content without compensation raises ethical concerns about fair use and the value of journalism
OpenAI’s strategic partnerships
To address these challenges, AI companies like OpenAI and Apple are actively forming partnerships with news outlets.
Reports indicate that OpenAI offers between $1 million and $5 million annually for news licensing, with Apple offering similar sums.
And it seems like the price tag’s allure has captured a few big fishes for OpenAI: Le Monde and Prisa Media will now allow ChatGPT to use their previous and current content, as explained in the March 13, 2024 blog post by OpenAI.
These deals likely involve providing OpenAI with access to publishers’ rich archives of news articles and other textual content. In return, publishers may gain early access to advanced AI tools that could enhance their operations, from news summarization to content generation.
One step ahead
OpenAI’s exclusive deals with publishers threaten to give the company a significant edge over its AI rivals.
With access to high-quality, real-world data, OpenAI can refine its LLMs to produce even more compelling and useful text-based tools.
Competitors like Anthropic and Google Gemini without similar data troves will find it harder to keep pace, leaving OpenAI in a potentially dominant market position.
News outlets not included or simply not interested in OpenAI’s deals are also already expressing concerns.
Some argue that using their content to train commercial AI models without explicit permission or compensation violates copyright law and undermines the principle of fair use.
The potential for lawsuits is high, especially as the legal boundaries around AI and intellectual property are still being defined.
The uncertain future of news media
The long-term effects of OpenAI’s publisher deals on the news industry are difficult to predict.
On the one hand, AI might enhance journalism, automating mundane tasks, enabling greater personalization, and helping to combat misinformation.
On the other hand, there’s the risk of AI-generated content eroding public trust and displacing journalists – and the publishers who employ them.
Additionally, with OpenAI poised to potentially gain unprecedented control over news generation and distribution through its tools, issues of bias and lack of transparency are worrisome.
As the dust settles in the wake of OpenAI’s publisher deals, several critical questions remain:
- Should deals like these receive greater regulatory scrutiny due to their potential to stifle competition in the burgeoning AI market?
- Should news outlets be financially compensated for their content when used to train commercial AI systems?
- How can we ensure AI-generated news is clearly labeled and attributed, allowing for public evaluation for accuracy and potential biases?
- How can newsrooms strike a balance between harnessing the potential of AI while upholding ethical standards and protecting the fundamental role of journalists?
The path AI forges through the news industry will determine whether it serves as a tool to empower or erode journalism. OpenAI’s deals are a crossroads.
The choices made now by tech titans, newsrooms, and society at large will shape the very nature of the information we consume, and ultimately who controls it.
Featured image credit: Petra/Pixabay.
