The New York Times has struck a licensing deal with Amazon that will allow the tech giant to utilize the paper’s content for “AI-related uses.” The Thursday announcement makes NYT the latest media company to agree to share its content via artificial intelligence.
The multi-year deal will allow Amazon to share excerpts of Times coverage through Alexa, its AI-controlled voice assistant. The agreement will also train Amazon’s AI models using these stories.
“The collaboration will make The New York Times’s original content more accessible to customers across Amazon products and services, including direct links to Times products, and underscores the companies’ shared commitment to serving customers with global news and perspectives within Amazon’s AI products,” the NYT said in a statement.
Business Insider Lays Off 21% of Staff
Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Amazon will also have access to content from The Athletic, the digital sports outlet the Times bought in 2022, as well as NYT Cooking material.
The deal stands out, considering it is the first AI licensing deal the Times has made. It also stands out because the Times is currently suing OpenAI and Microsoft, the companies behind ChatGPT, for using its content without consent, according to the Times.
Other major media companies have reached similar deals to license their content for AI models in recent years, including News Corp., which has a deal to share its stories with OpenAI.
News Corp. CEO Robert Thomson, on the company’s earnings call earlier this month, said he is “pleased” with the partnership so far. He said the people behind ChatGPT “fully appreciate their responsibilities to our company, to creativity and to the community.”
The Associated Press and Axel Springer, the German publisher, also have deals with OpenAI. In related news, Axel Springer’s Business Insider cut 21% of its staff on Thursday.
