OpenAI inks licensing deal with People magazine publisher

OPENAI has inked a licensing deal with Dotdash Meredith that will bring the People magazine publisher’s content to ChatGPT and help train the tech startup’s artificial intelligence models.

Under the partnership, which was announced on Tuesday (May 7), OpenAI will be able to display lifestyle and entertainment content in its chatbot from the many websites of one of the largest digital and print publishers in the US.

Dotdash Meredith, a subsidiary of Barry Diller’s IAC, will also be able to leverage OpenAI’s models to improve its advertising targeting tool. The companies did not disclose financial terms.

The ChatGPT-maker has been working to broker deals with publishers on both sides of the Atlantic to secure more content for its AI services while facing copyright complaints.

In April, OpenAI announced an agreement with the Financial Times to incorporate summaries, quotes and links from the paper into ChatGPT. The company has also cut deals with Germany’s Axel Springer, French paper Le Monde and Spanish media conglomerate Prisa.

“We have not been shy about the fact that AI platforms should pay publishers for their content and that content must be appropriately attributed,” Dotdash Meredith chief executive officer Neil Vogel said in a statement.

“This deal is a testament to the great work OpenAI is doing on both fronts to partner with creators and publishers and ensure a healthy Internet for the future.”

OpenAI has also been in talks with dozens of publishers to licence content, including CNN, Fox and Time, Bloomberg previously reported. But like other AI companies, OpenAI has been dogged by lawsuits from authors and publishers that it has scraped their work to build its AI tools.

In December, the New York Times sued OpenAI for allegedly using the publisher’s copyrighted articles to train AI services like ChatGPT without permission. OpenAI has disputed the Times’ claims. BLOOMBERG