OpenAI strikes deal with Hearst to bring more news content to ChatGPT

By Jackie Davalos

OpenAI and Hearst Communications Inc. have struck a deal to bring content from the publisher’s suite of magazines and newspapers into chatbot ChatGPT, adding to a long list of partnerships the artificial intelligence startup has inked with media companies.
 

As part of the agreement, which was announced on Tuesday, Hearst will license content from Esquire, Cosmopolitan, Elle and more than 40 newspapers for use across OpenAI’s products. Hearst’s content will appear in ChatGPT with attribution to provide “transparency and easy access to the original Hearst sources,” the companies said.

“As generative AI matures, it’s critical that journalism created by professional journalists be at the heart of all AI products,” Hearst Newspapers President Jeff Johnson said in a statement. “This agreement allows the trustworthy and curated content created by Hearst Newspapers’ award-winning journalists to be part of OpenAI’s products like ChatGPT — creating more timely and relevant results.”

OpenAI has been striking licensing deals with publishers such as Condé Nast, News Corp. and Time magazine to train its AI models and to integrate more authoritative, up-to-date information within its products. As part of some of these deals, OpenAI has also agreed to give users news summaries with attribution.

Not every outlet is working with the company, however. In December, the New York Times sued the startup for allegedly using its copyrighted articles without permission to build its technology. OpenAI has disputed the claims, saying that the New York Times is not “telling the full story.”

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