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Axel Springer partners with OpenAI to bring its journalism into ChatGPT

OpenAI will show summaries of Axel Springer news, including paywalled stories, in ChatGPT with attribution and links, and will pay for Axel Springer content used to train its models. Financial terms were not disclosed.

NEW YORK, December 13, 2023 - German publisher Axel Springer and OpenAI announced a partnership under which ChatGPT will deliver summaries of news from Axel Springer brands, including Politico, Business Insider, Bild and Welt. The companies did not disclose financial terms.1

Terms of the deal

According to AFP reporting carried by Arab News, ChatGPT will answer user questions with summaries from relevant Axel Springer stories, including content that would otherwise require a subscription. Each summary cites the Axel Springer publication and links to the full article.1 The summaries are to be available once an article is published so that breaking news appears. Content was expected to begin appearing in the first quarter of 2024, according to OpenAI's head of intellectual property and content, Tom Rubin.1

OpenAI will also pay for Axel Springer content that it uses to train the large language models behind ChatGPT, including archived material, Rubin said. The deal covers multiple years and is not exclusive. A source familiar with the arrangement said the content would get a "favorable position" in ChatGPT results, intended to drive traffic and subscriptions to Axel Springer brands.1

Background

The Axel Springer agreement was the second between OpenAI and a major news publisher, after the Associated Press in July 2023.1 It came as other outlets, including The New York Times, had sued OpenAI and Microsoft over the use of their articles to train AI systems, while several news groups chose to license instead.1 OpenAI has since signed licensing or content partnerships with a long list of publishers, including Le Monde, Prisa Media, the Financial Times and News Corp.

What it means for data sellers

The Axel Springer deal is a clear example of splitting a license into parts: display of current content with attribution, and a paid license for training. A seller should decide which of those rights it is granting and price them independently.

It also shows that access to restricted content, here paywalled stories, can be part of the offer and may be worth more to a buyer than public material. Sellers should say plainly whether gated or private data is in scope.

This entry is a news summary. SellYourAIData was not involved in the deal.

How the deal came together

  1. The companies announced a multi-year partnership. On December 13, 2023 OpenAI and Axel Springer said ChatGPT would carry summaries from brands such as Politico, Business Insider, Bild and Welt.
  2. Paywalled content was included. The summaries include material from stories that would otherwise require a subscription.
  3. Training use was paid for. OpenAI said it would also pay for Axel Springer content, including archived material, used to train its language models.
  4. Terms stayed private. The deal is multi-year and non-exclusive. No price was disclosed.

Takeaways for companies with data

  • Display rights and training rights can be priced and negotiated separately inside one deal.
  • Non-exclusivity left Axel Springer free to sign with other AI buyers.
  • Attribution and links were part of the consideration, not an afterthought.

Sources

Every numbered reference above points to an entry here. Figures come from these pages as of the date shown at the top of the article. Where a source reports a number it got from unnamed people, the text says so.

  1. Global news publisher Axel Springer partners with OpenAI in landmark deal (Arab News, December 2023)

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About the AI Data Deal Tracker

SellYourAIData tracks publicly reported sales and licenses of data to AI companies, with the price, terms and sources for each. Entries are checked against public reporting and updated as deals change. SellYourAIData was not involved in this deal. To ask what your company's data could sell for, get a free valuation. To report a deal, contact us.