OpenAI, a Microsoft-backed company, has signed a deal to give its ChatGPT artificially intelligent program access to the Financial Times’ archived content.
The details of this tie-up, which is described as a “strategic licensing and partnership agreement”, were not disclosed. However, it was revealed that the FT would receive an unspecified sum in return for the work done by its journalists, and that both businesses will be working together to develop new AI features that will benefit the readers of the newspaper.
ChatGPT users will see links to articles and short summaries from the FT in response to chatbot queries.
ChatGPT users will be able ask questions to the chatbot, and see summaries from FT articles
Copyright is an issue that divides the creative and technology industries. To power Generative AI (which creates text or images based on prompts), it requires vast amounts of data. The better the input quality, the more effective the output.
Some content creators have taken legal action, such as The New York Times newspaper which is suing OpenAI and Microsoft for scraping their content. Others have taken legal actions, including The New York Times, which is sueing OpenAI and Microsoft and Getty Images the photo library which is suing StabilityAI. Axel Springer and Associated Press, as well as Le Monde, reached agreements with technology companies.
John Ridding (58), the FT CEO, stated: “We are eager to explore practical outcomes in regards to news sources and AI via this partnership. We are excited to be a part of the development process as users discover new content.
As with any new technology, there are many possibilities for advancements and challenges. But, it is impossible to go back in time. We must protect FT content and the FT brand by ensuring that we represent quality journalism when these products are developed.
Brad Lightcap said, “Our partnership with the FT and our dialogue with them is about finding creative, productive ways to use AI to empower journalists and news organisations, and to enhance the ChatGPT Experience with world-class, real-time journalism for millions of users around the globe.”
Lightcap recently said that copyright is a “hard issue to solve”, but technology companies can “do more” than simply signing licensing agreements with content creators. For example, they could collaborate earlier in the process of research on new products.