Condé Nast and OpenAI: Deal for Editorial Content Amid Innovation and Concerns | Chat GPT | OpenAI | Chat AI | Turtles AI

Condé Nast and OpenAI Strike Multi-Year Deal: The Future of Editorial Content Between Innovation and Concerns.

Highlights:

• Condé Nast and OpenAI have signed a deal to use editorial content in AI platforms.
• Condé Nast’s CEO, Roger Lynch, sees the deal as a way to compensate for revenue losses amid publishing challenges.
• The NewsGuild of New York is seeking more details on the impact of the deal on jobs and workers’ rights.
• The agreement reflects a growing trend of publishers collaborating with AI companies despite concerns over credibility and misinformation.

Condé Nast, the media giant, and OpenAI, a leading AI company, have recently signed a multi-year agreement allowing the AI firm to utilize content from Condé Nast’s portfolio, including The New Yorker, Vogue, Vanity Fair, Bon Appetit, and WIRED. This deal will enable OpenAI to incorporate stories from these outlets into both ChatGPT and the new SearchGPT prototype. Roger Lynch, CEO of Condé Nast, emphasized the importance of adapting to new technologies while ensuring proper attribution and compensation for the use of intellectual property. Lynch highlighted the current challenges in the publishing sector, exacerbated by changes in online search practices, and viewed the agreement with OpenAI as a way to offset lost revenue, which will help support and invest in the group’s journalism and creative projects.

Lynch, who has previously criticized AI companies for unauthorized use of content, had expressed concerns about the data scraping practices of AI search engine Perplexity. Condé Nast responded by sending a cease-and-desist letter to protect its content. Although specific terms of the OpenAI agreement have not been disclosed, the news has raised questions among members of the NewsGuild of New York, the union representing Condé Nast’s editorial staff. The union president, Susan DeCarava, has voiced concerns about the impact of the technology on journalism jobs and has requested more transparency about the details of the deal.

OpenAI’s blog noted that Condé Nast is not the only publisher turning to generative AI. Publications such as The Atlantic, Axel Springer, and TIME, as well as platforms like Reddit and Automattic, have already established similar agreements. The practice of gathering training data without prior licensing has been a source of legal disputes for AI companies, leading to a series of lawsuits, including from the New York Times, over perceived unfair practices. In response to these controversies, many publishers are opting for direct collaborations with major AI players.

Digital publishers’ reliance on search engines and social platforms to drive traffic to their content makes the issue complex. Changes to Google and Facebook algorithms can significantly impact a publication’s success. As AI evolves towards generating summaries and new search products, publishers face the choice of whether to allow AI companies to use their content or risk making their articles harder to find online.

Despite the rise in deals between publishers and AI companies, the publishing industry remains divided. Jessica Lessin, CEO of The Information, has described such agreements as a “settlement without litigation” and warned that publishers are trading their hard-earned credibility for immediate financial gain while AI companies develop products that could potentially replace them. Additionally, some Condé Nast employees have expressed concerns about using their content to train tools that may contribute to misinformation.