ChatGPT

The use of content from news and information providers to train artificial intelligence systems may force a reassessment of where to draw legal lines.

Artificial intelligence went mainstream in 2023 — it was a long time coming yet has a long way to go for the technology to match people’s science fiction fantasies of human-like machines. Catalyzing a year of AI fanfare was ChatGPT. The chatbot gave the world a glimpse of recent advances in computer science even if not everyone figured out quite how it works or what to do with it. (Image: Matt Rourke/AP)

News-publishing giant Axel Springer has inked a multiyear licensing deal with ChatGPT creator OpenAI, a significant milestone as media companies push for compensation for the use of their content in artificial-intelligence tools. Under the agreement, OpenAI will pay to use content from Axel Springer publications, which include Politico and Business Insider in the U.S. and European properties Bild and Welt, to populate answers in ChatGPT and train its AI tools.

AI is changing media sales. ChatGPT automates tasks and creates efficiencies, but OpenAI’s leadership changes show the need for a strategic approach to AI integration. ShareBuilders offers tailored AI solutions prioritizing data safety and flexibility.

San Francisco-based OpenAI said in a statement late Tuesday: “We have reached an agreement in principle for Sam Altman to return to OpenAI as CEO with a new initial board.” The board, which replaces the one that fired Altman on Friday, will be led by former Salesforce co-CEO Bret Taylor, who also chaired Twitter’s board before its takeover by Elon Musk last year. The other members will be former U.S. Treasury Secretary Larry Summers and Quora CEO Adam D’Angelo.

Microsoft Chairman and CEO Satya Nadella tweeted that the U.S. tech giant is committed to its partnership with OpenAI, whose chatbot kicked off the generative AI craze by producing human-like text, images, video and music. On Monday, Microsoft said it has hired Sam Altman and Greg Brockman to lead a new advanced AI research team.

“The board no longer has confidence in his ability to continue leading OpenAI,” the company, which makes ChatGPT, said in a statement.

The News Media Alliance, a trade group that represents newspapers, says that AI chatbots use news articles significantly more than generic content online.

OpenAI released a new version of its DALL-E image generator to a small group of testers and incorporated the technology into its popular ChatGPT chatbot.

While a shot has yet to be fired, some of the nation’s largest newsrooms are actively taking defensive measures to safeguard their content from ChatGPT, the groundbreaking artificial intelligence chatbot that is seen as a potential aggressor to an already struggling news industry.

For weeks, The Times and the maker of ChatGPT have been locked in tense negotiations over reaching a licensing deal in which OpenAI would pay The Times for incorporating its stories in the tech company’s AI tools, but the discussions have become so contentious that the paper is now considering legal action.

The agency sent OpenAI, which makes ChatGPT, a letter this week over consumer harms and the company’s security practices.

ChatGPT may be grabbing attention and lots of experimental early use, but the technology’s limitations are already widely evident. Media ought to take stock of the caveats, especially as chatbots are destined to play a larger role in the business.

Along with adding it to Bing, Microsoft is also integrating the chatbot technology into its Edge browser. Microsoft announced the new technology at an event Tuesday at its headquarters in Redmond, Wash. The revamping of Microsoft’s second-place search engine could give the software giant a head start against other tech companies in capitalizing on the worldwide excitement surrounding ChatGPT, a tool that’s awakened millions of people to the possibilities of the latest AI technology.