Condé Nast has entered into a multi-year collaboration with OpenAI, enabling the AI leader to leverage content from Condé Nast’s extensive portfolio, which includes renowned publications such as the New Yorker, Vogue, Vanity Fair, and Bon Appetit. This partnership will permit OpenAI to feature articles from these publications in both ChatGPT and the new SearchGPT prototype.
Roger Lynch, the CEO of Condé Nast, emphasized the importance of adapting to new technologies and the necessity of securing proper credit and remuneration for their intellectual content in an internal communication. Lynch highlighted the challenges that the publishing industry faces due to technological advances that disrupt traditional revenue streams.
Lynch mentioned that this collaboration with OpenAI could help compensate for lost revenues, thus supporting the sustainability and growth of their journalistic and creative projects.
Earlier in the year, Lynch advocated for licensing agreements during a Congressional testimony concerning the training methodologies of AI companies like OpenAI. He has been critical of AI firms using media content without authorization, labeling such actions akin to handling “stolen goods.” Following a WIRED report on the data-scraping activities of AI search engine startup Perplexity, Condé Nast issued a cease-and-desist to halt the unauthorized use of its content.
Specific terms of the partnership have not been disclosed. OpenAI declined to comment on the deal’s terms.
As OpenAI mentioned in a blog post, this isn’t the first media company to collaborate with a generative AI company. Publishers such as The Atlantic, Axel Springer, and TIME, along with platforms like Reddit and Automattic, the owner of WordPress and Tumblr, have formed similar alliances. Traditionally, major AI companies collected training data by scraping the web without obtaining licenses for copyrighted materials. This practice has led to a series of lawsuits against such firms, including actions from other news outlets like The New York Times, which argue that this method is unjust. Moreover, an increasing number of publishers are now opting to work with the leading AI entities.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
