OpenAI looks to strike deals with publishers

OpenAI said it's talking to dozens of publishers about striking deals to license their articles, a broader effort than was previously known as the startup looks for content to train its artificial intelligence models.

“We are in the middle of many negotiations and discussions with many publishers. They are active. They are very positive. They're progressing well,” Tom Rubin, OpenAI's chief of intellectual property and content, told Bloomberg News. “You've seen deals announced, and there will be more in the future.”

OpenAI recently inked a multiyear licensing deal with Politico's parent company Axel Springer SE for tens of millions of dollars, a person familiar with the matter previously told Bloomberg. In July, OpenAI announced an agreement with The Associated Press for an undisclosed amount. These deals are key to OpenAI's future as it's balancing the need for updated, accurate data to build its models with growing scrutiny about where that data is sourced from.

But last week, one of the companies it had been in talks with, The New York Times Co., sued OpenAI and Microsoft Corp. for using the publication's articles without permission.

The suit poses an existential challenge to OpenAI's business. If the

Times wins the case, OpenAI may not only owe billions of dollars, but could also be forced to destroy any of its training data that includes work from the Times, a costly and complicated task. More immediately, however, the lawsuit complicates OpenAI's deal-making efforts with the media industry.