OpenAI-News Corp, 340 Billion KRW Content Agreement Over 5 Years

World's Largest Media Group Owning WSJ and The Times
Utilizes News Content for AI Model Training

OpenAI, the developer of ChatGPT, has signed a content licensing agreement worth $250 million (approximately 340 billion KRW) over five years with News Corporation (hereinafter News Corp), the world's largest media group, local media including Bloomberg reported on the 22nd (local time).

News Corp owns major U.S. outlets such as The Wall Street Journal (WSJ), the New York Post, the large U.S. publisher HarperCollins, the British daily The Times, and Australia's Euro Broadcasting. Through this agreement, OpenAI will be able to use news content published by about 10 companies under News Corp for training its artificial intelligence (AI) models.

In addition to providing publication content, News Corp plans to share the expertise of its journalists with OpenAI. Robert Thomson, CEO of News Corp, emphasized in a letter to employees on the same day, "In the digital age, many media companies have disappeared swept away by ruthless technology as distributors thrived at the expense of creators," adding, "We believe this historic agreement will set a new standard for integrity, virtue, and value in the digital age."

Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, responded in a statement, "The collaboration with News Corp is a proud moment both for journalism and technology." After the New York stock market closed that day, News Corp Class A shares rose by 6%.

As competition in generative AI intensifies recently, companies are increasingly eager to secure digital content from media outlets. Previously, OpenAI had also signed content usage licenses with German media group Axel Springer, the parent company of U.S. political media Politico and economic media Business Insider, as well as with AP News, Le Monde, and the Financial Times (FT). However, it is currently engaged in a legal battle over copyright infringement with The New York Times (NYT).

Google also reached an agreement with News Corp earlier this month for AI content usage and product development. It is reported that Google promised to pay $5 million to $6 million annually (6.8 billion to 8.2 billion KRW) in exchange for using News Corp media content to train and enhance its AI models.

Meanwhile, Altman attracted attention by making a surprise appearance at Microsoft's annual developer conference 'Build 2024' held on the 21st in Redmond, Washington. Microsoft announced that it will integrate 'GPT-4o' into its cloud service 'Azure AI.' GPT-4o is OpenAI's latest AI model, characterized by real-time voice conversations with users, unlike previous models that only support text-based dialogue. However, the voice service 'Sky' of GPT-4o is currently suspended due to allegations that it mimics the voice of actress Scarlett Johansson.