OpenAI to pay Axel Springer to use journalism in ChatGPT

Axel Springer said Wednesday it was partnering up with the maker of ChatGPT, OpenAI, which will pay the German media group to include its journalism in responses generated by the chatbot.

“ChatGPT users around the world will receive summaries of selected global news content from Axel Springer’s media brands,” which include news site Politico and German tabloid Bild, the two companies said in a statement.

The chatbot’s answers would include material otherwise kept behind a pay-wall and offer “links to the full articles for transparency and further information,” they said.

Axel Springer will be paid for making its content available to the US artificial intelligence firm, a spokesman for the media group told AFP.

The deal is valid for several years and does not commit either side to exclusivity, leaving them free to sign new agreements, the spokesman said without giving more detail.

With the advent of platforms such as Google or Facebook, media companies had missed the opportunity to establish a new source of income “and we are all still running after the money”, the spokesman said.

The partnership with OpenAI was “the first of its kind”, Axel Springer CEO Matthias Doepfner said in the statement.

“We want to explore the opportunities of AI empowered journalism—to bring quality, societal relevance and the business model of journalism to the next level,” Doepfner said.

Doepfner has previously warned that AI threatened to “replace” journalism, while the group has been pursuing its own AI-driven ventures.

The cooperation with Axel Springer would “help provide people with new ways to access quality, real-time news content through our AI tools,” OpenAI chief operating officer Brad Lightcap said in the statement.

AI chatbots such as ChatGPT are able to generate essays, poems and more in a matter of a few seconds.

But there are fears that the bots may recycle and spread false, nonsensical or offensive material in their answers to user queries.

© 2023 AFP