OpenAI has struck a new content licensing agreement with Axios, offering the news outlet funding to expand into four additional U.S. cities in exchange for access to its content for ChatGPT. The deal also gives Axios access to OpenAI's technology.
Here's my usual disclaimer: While these partnerships might benefit the selected media companies, they're creating an environment where news organizations might abandon their own platforms to chase AI partnerships instead, pushing them into an even deeper dependence on tech companies.
The setup also puts smaller, independent publishers in a tough spot. If they're not picked as OpenAI's "preferred" partners, they're left with two unappealing choices: either fade into obscurity in the emerging AI-driven landscape or give away their content for free, with just a slim chance of staying relevant. Over time, this could seriously limit the variety of voices in the media.
What's more concerning is that OpenAI has positioned itself as a judge of quality journalism through its Preferred Publisher Program, but hasn't explained how it chooses which publishers make the cut. The company says it now has around 20 similar agreements, giving it access to content from more than 160 news outlets.
Journalism professor Jeff Jarvis is blunt in his assessment, calling OpenAI's payments essentially hush money and "pure lobbying" to prevent more copyright lawsuits.
