Hey, at least now we’ll know where some of their answers are coming from! Last week, OpenAI signed a deal with AP to license news stories!

According to the AP (ChatGPT-maker OpenAI signs deal with AP to license news stories, written by Matt O’Brien and available here), ChatGPT-maker OpenAI and The Associated Press said Thursday that they’ve OpenAI signed a deal with AP for the artificial intelligence company to license AP’s archive of news stories.

“The arrangement sees OpenAI licensing part of AP’s text archive, while AP will leverage OpenAI’s technology and product expertise,” the two organizations said in a joint statement.

Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

“We are pleased that OpenAI recognizes that fact-based, nonpartisan news content is essential to this evolving technology, and that they respect the value of our intellectual property,” said a written statement from Kristin Heitmann, AP senior vice president and chief revenue officer. “AP firmly supports a framework that will ensure intellectual property is protected and content creators are fairly compensated for their work.”

The two companies said they are also examining “potential use cases for generative AI in news products and services,” though didn’t give specifics. OpenAI and AP both “believe in the responsible creation and use of these AI systems,” the statement said.

OpenAI will have access to AP news stories going back to 1985.

The AP deal is valuable to a company like OpenAI because it provides a trove of material that it can use for training purposes, and is also a hedge against losing access to material because of lawsuits that have threatened its access to material, said Nick Diakopoulos, a professor of communications studies and computer science at Northwestern University.

“In order to guard against how the courts may decide, maybe you want to go out and sign licensing deals so you’re guaranteed legal access to the material you’ll need,” Diakopoulos said.

The AP doesn’t currently use any generative AI in its news stories, but has used other forms of AI for nearly a decade, including to automate corporate earnings reports and recap some sporting events. It also runs a program that helps local news organizations incorporate AI into their operations, and recently launched an AI-powered image archive search.

The article also discussed some of the challenges that OpenAI has faced recently, including the FTC investigation and their copyright infringement lawsuits from authors including Sarah Silverman. In addition to those suits, more than 4,000 writers — among them Nora Roberts, Margaret Atwood, Louise Erdrich and Jodi Picoult — signed a letter late last month to the CEOs of OpenAI, Google, Microsoft, Meta and other AI developers accusing them of exploitative practices in building chatbots that “mimic and regurgitate” their language, style and ideas.

So, what do you think? Are you surprised that OpenAI signed a deal with AP to license news stories? Please share any comments you might have or if you’d like to know more about a particular topic.

BTW, I’m on my first real vacation in three years (seriously! – this post was pre-scheduled!) so I may be slow to respond to comments here and on social media. 🙂

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