tl;dr
The New York Times has signed its first-ever content licensing deal with Amazon to allow the tech giant to use its editorial content, including NYT Cooking and The Athletic, for training AI models and providing real-time article summaries via services like Alexa. This follows the Times’ earlier laws...
The New York Times has entered a landmark content licensing agreement with Amazon, allowing the tech giant to use the newspaper’s editorial content, including NYT Cooking and The Athletic, for training artificial intelligence models and delivering real-time article summaries via platforms such as Alexa. This deal marks the first time the Times has licensed its content for AI training, following a legal battle where the paper sued OpenAI and Microsoft over unauthorized use of its articles.
While Amazon secures this strategic partnership, other major publishers are also forging ties with AI companies to monetize their content. OpenAI, for instance, has agreements with prominent outlets like Axel Springer, Financial Times, and Condé Nast, pledging to credit original sources and sometimes developing new AI tools for readers. Despite its sizable market presence, The New York Times had previously resisted such deals, even as the lawsuit against OpenAI incurred significant legal costs.
The Times’ CEO, Meredith Kopit Levien, emphasized that the deal upholds the principle that quality journalism deserves fair compensation. This move underscores an ongoing industry struggle between content creators demanding payment for their work and AI developers who claim fair use in training their models. Meanwhile, Amazon’s entry with this content license signifies its effort to catch up with rivals like Google, Meta, and Microsoft in the AI space.
In a broader context, Zimbabwe’s president Emmerson Mnangagwa recently highlighted the risks AI poses to national sovereignty and democracy during the unveiling of the country’s National Media Policy. He pointed to the challenges in controlling misinformation and fake news, exacerbated by AI-generated content. To safeguard data authenticity and security in AI applications, Mnangagwa recommended integrating enterprise blockchain systems, which provide immutability and protect data ownership—key factors for trustworthy AI deployment.