The New York Times has entered into its first artificial intelligence licensing agreement with Amazon, enabling the tech giant to incorporate the newspaper’s editorial content into various customer experiences, including the Alexa voice assistant. The multi-year deal will allow Amazon to use news articles from The Times, as well as content from NYT Cooking and sports publication The Athletic.
According to Meredith Kopit Levien, CEO of The Times, “The deal is consistent with our long-held principle that high-quality journalism is worth paying for.” The agreement aligns with The Times’ approach to ensuring its work is valued appropriately, whether through commercial deals or enforcement of intellectual property rights.
This partnership marks a significant shift for The Times, which in 2023 sued OpenAI and Microsoft for copyright infringement, alleging the companies used millions of the newspaper’s articles without permission to train automated chatbots. The litigation is ongoing, with The Times recording £4.4 million in pretax legal costs in its first quarter.
Under the Amazon agreement, excerpts from Times reporting will include attribution and links back to the newspaper’s website in some instances. The content will also be used to train Amazon’s proprietary AI models. The deal comes as news organizations grapple with how to respond to the rapid emergence of AI technology. While The Times pursued legal action against OpenAI, other major publishers have opted for licensing agreements to receive revenue in exchange for their content usage.
Amazon has been working to catch up in the AI race after being caught off-guard by the launch of ChatGPT in late 2022. The company has since invested £4 billion in Anthropic, one of OpenAI’s chief rivals, and has been acquiring AI talent through deals with start-ups including Adept and Covariant.
The partnership could help Amazon enhance its AI offerings while providing The Times with a new revenue stream and potential subscriber acquisition channel. The newspaper recently won four Pulitzer Prizes and exceeded digital subscriber growth expectations in the first quarter.
