What News Corp’s Deal With OpenAI Says About Future of Publishing, AI

A deal announced Wednesday between ChatGPT maker OpenAI and News Corp (NWSA) could have wide-ranging implications across the media industry.

The deal, reportedly valued at more than $250 million over five years, will give OpenAI access to decades of archival content from News Corp’s outlets, from the New York Post to Dow Jones & Co. publications The Wall Street Journal and Barron’s. OpenAI will pay News Corp for the content, while also featuring content from News Corp brands in ChatGPT’s answers.

“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,” News Corp CEO Robert Thomson said.

Latest in String of Agreements Between OpenAI and Publishers

Media organizations have so far largely chosen between two main routes when dealing with artificial intelligence (AI) giants including OpenAI, Microsoft (MSFT), and Alphabet’s (GOOGL) Google, either with legal action accusing the companies of training AI chatbots on their content without compensation, or with agreements to license their content for AI training.

In recent months, OpenAI has signed deals with a number of publishers, including the German company Axel Springer, which owns Politico and Business Insider; The Associated Press; Financial Times; and Investopedia parent Dotdash Meredith.

Journalists and unions have voiced concerns about the deals, amid worries that management could decide to use AI to create content for their brands, potentially leading to job cuts. Such experiments by publications like Sports Illustrated and CNET have faced significant scrutiny so far, following the publication of AI-generated pieces riddled with errors.

The Independent Association of Publishers’ Employees (IAPE) union, which represents Dow Jones workers in the U.S. and Canada, said regarding News Corp’s announcement that “IAPE is disappointed that we have not reached an agreement on AI protection regarding bylined work and are disturbed that an announcement of this magnitude would be made without protections in place. The Union was not contacted by Dow Jones prior to the announcement.”

Some Publishers Have Opted for Lawsuits

OpenAI and Microsoft are also facing a lawsuit from The New York Times and another from a group of eight prominent regional newspapers owned by Alden Global Capital, which seek billions in damages for allegedly using unlicensed content to train the AI models.

OpenAI has also been in the news this week as actress Scarlett Johansson accused the company of creating an AI voice assistant based on her own voice after she had declined a request from the company to provide hers for the new product.

Johansson said she was contacted by a number of people after OpenAI debuted the voice, dubbed “Sky,” at a recent demo, because of how similar the voice sounded to hers in the 2013 film “Her,” in which she voiced an AI program.

News Corp shares were up 1.3% to $26.29 as of 11:45 a.m. ET Thursday.