New York Times, Amazon Unveil AI Content Licensing Deal
In its first AI licensing deal, The New York Times Company and giant Amazon have announced a multi-year agreement that will bring Times editorial content to a variety of Amazon customer experiences in a move the partners said broadens the companies’ existing relationship.
The idea is to “bring additional value to Amazon customers and bring Times journalism to wider audiences,” the companies said.
Under the new deal, Amazon is licensing editorial content from The New York Times, NYT Cooking, and The Athletic “for AI-related uses.” This will include real-time display of summaries and short excerpts of Times content within Amazon products and services, such as Alexa, and training Amazon’s proprietary foundation models.
The collaboration will make The New York Times’s original content more accessible to customers across Amazon products and services, including direct links to Times products, “and underscores the companies’ shared commitment to serving customers with global news and perspectives within Amazon’s AI products.”
As AI firms suck up vast quantities of data to train their so-called Large Language Models publishers have taken different tacks, some inking deals some seeking the courts. The NYT is suing giant OpenAI and its major investor Microsoft for copyright violation in its use of content. A judge ruled in March that the suit can proceed.
Copyright is the issue and “fair use,” a legal doctrine that allows use of copyrighted material in certain ways and in certain cases. AI companies have often appeared game to compensate publishers on their own terms but are seeking loser restrictions on copyright rules in order to grown and, they said in recent testimony, compete globally. Copyright owners including the Hollywood creative community have pushed back on that, insisting that the laws be upheld.
It’s not clear if or how turmoil at the U.S. Copyright Office will impact this. A federal judge yesterday declined to issue an order that would immediately prevent the Trump administration from firing the register of copyrights and head of the office, Shira Perlmutter
