OpenAI signs multi-year content partnership with Condé Nast

27.08.2024

Condé Nast and OpenAI announced a multi-year partnership on Tuesday to showcase content from the publisher’s brands, including Vogue, Wired, and the New Yorker, within OpenAI’s products such as ChatGPT and the SearchGPT prototype.

The financial details of the agreement have not been revealed. Over the past few months, OpenAI, which is backed by Microsoft and led by Sam Altman, has entered into similar agreements with other major publishers like Time magazine, the Financial Times, Axel Springer (the owner of Business Insider), France’s Le Monde, and Spain’s Prisa Media. These deals provide OpenAI with access to extensive text archives owned by the publishers, which are essential for training large language models like ChatGPT and for retrieving up-to-date information.

In July, OpenAI launched SearchGPT, an AI-powered search engine with real-time internet access, challenging Google’s long-held dominance in search. The agreement with Condé Nast allows SearchGPT to include information and quotations from Condé Nast articles in its search results.

Brad Lightcap, OpenAI’s chief operating officer, stated that the company is committed to collaborating with Condé Nast and other news publishers to “ensure that as AI becomes more involved in news discovery and delivery, it upholds accuracy, integrity, and respect for quality journalism.”

According to an email shared by the New York Times, Condé Nast’s CEO, Roger Lynch, mentioned that this partnership will help recover some of the revenue that technology companies have diverted away from publishers in recent years. He wrote, “Generative AI is rapidly changing how audiences find information. It’s vital that we engage with audiences where they are and adopt new technologies, while also ensuring proper credit and compensation for the use of our intellectual property.”

In contrast, some other media organizations have taken a different approach. The New York Times and The Intercept have filed lawsuits against OpenAI for using their content, and these legal cases are still ongoing.