Condé Nast and OpenAI have struck a multi-year deal that will allow the AI giant to employ content from the media giant’s roster, including the Fresh Yorker, Vogue, Vanity Fair, Bon Appetit, and, yes, WIRED. The deal will allow OpenAI to serve stories from those outlets on both ChatGPT and the novel SearchGPT prototype.
“It is critical that we meet audiences where they are and embrace new technologies while ensuring appropriate attribution and compensation for the use of our intellectual property,” Condé Nast CEO Roger Lynch wrote in a company-wide email. Lynch noted the ongoing turmoil in the publishing industry when discussing the deal, noting that tech companies have made it harder for publishers to make money, most recently through changes to conventional search.
“Our partnership with OpenAI is starting to provide us with a portion of that revenue, allowing us to continue to protect and invest in our journalism and creative endeavors,” he wrote.
Lynch testified before Congress earlier this year about how AI companies like OpenAI trained their models, arguing in favor of licensing. He had previously been a vocal opponent of AI companies using content without permission, describing the data in question as “stolen goods.” After WIRED reported earlier this year on AI search engine startup Perplexity’s web-scraping practices, Condé Nast sent a cease and desist letter demanding that the company stop using its content.
Specific terms of the partnership were not disclosed. OpenAI declined to comment on the terms of the deal.
As OpenAI noted in a blog post announcing the deal, this isn’t the first media company to partner with a generative AI company. Publishers like The Atlantic, Axel Springer, and TIME have already struck deals, as have platforms like Reddit and Automattic, the owner of WordPress and Tumblr. Most major AI companies have traditionally collected training data by scouring the internet without first licensing copyrighted material. That’s prompted a wave of lawsuits against the companies, including from other news outlets like The Fresh York Times arguing the practice is unfair — and now a growing wave of publishers choosing to partner with major AI players.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.