The New York Times Partners with Amazon on Generative AI Content
The New York Times has taken a significant step in the evolving landscape of journalism and artificial intelligence by licensing its editorial content to Amazon for the first time. This multi-year agreement will bring The Times’ news articles, as well as content from NYT Cooking and The Athletic, to Amazon products such as the Alexa voice assistant and other Amazon platforms that incorporate generative AI (GenAI) technology.
This partnership is particularly noteworthy given that The Times is currently involved in a lawsuit against AI vendor OpenAI and its backer, Microsoft, over allegations of copyright infringement. The Times accused these vendors of training their chatbots on its articles without proper compensation. The agreement with Amazon, however, reflects The Times’ stance that “quality journalism is worth paying for.”
The financial terms of the deal between The Times and Amazon have not been disclosed. However, experts speculate that the compensation is likely a key factor in The Times’ decision. “I bet that the dollar amount on this deal is a major driver in making Amazon, from The New York Times’ perspective, a good partner in this arrangement,” said Michael G Bennett, associate vice chancellor for data science and AI strategy at the University of Illinois Chicago. Bennett also highlighted Amazon’s vast scale and rapidly growing infrastructure as additional reasons why this partnership is advantageous for The Times.
The collaboration is seen as a beneficial arrangement for both parties. For The Times, it provides a new revenue stream while ensuring its content reaches a broader audience through Amazon’s platforms. For Amazon, it gains access to high-quality, trusted content from a reputable news source. This move is part of a larger trend where publishers are partnering with GenAI model providers to ensure they are compensated for their content used in AI training.
“These trusted sources are becoming the currency of large language models,” said Bradley Shimmin, an analyst at Futurum Group. The development comes as AI models face challenges in sourcing high-quality data for training, particularly with many sources being locked behind paywalls. Partnerships like the one between The Times and Amazon are becoming increasingly important as legal challenges mount against AI companies using content without permission.
While this partnership may be seen as a positive development for The New York Times, experts warn of potential long-term implications for the publishing industry. Chirag Shah, a professor of information science at the University of Washington in Seattle, noted that while such deals may provide short-term benefits, they could potentially harm publishers in the long run if consumer behavior shifts away from visiting publishers’ websites directly.
The Times’ decision is also seen as a strategic move to ensure its business model remains viable in an AI-driven future. By partnering with Amazon, The Times is not only generating revenue but also potentially strengthening its legal position against other AI vendors. “This would also help with their lawsuit against OpenAI,” Shah observed.
As the media landscape continues to evolve with the integration of AI, The New York Times’ partnership with Amazon represents a significant development in how traditional news organizations are adapting to the changing digital environment.
