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Johns Hopkins University Press will license its books to train an unnamed AI model

Johns Hopkins University Press told authors it would license its books to train a proprietary large language model, with authors able to opt out until the end of August 2025. The buyer and the fee were not disclosed.

BALTIMORE, July 25, 2025. Johns Hopkins University Press announced that it will license its books to train a proprietary large language model. Authors have until the end of August to opt out; those who do not will have their books included.1

Terms of the deal

The Press did not name the AI company or disclose the payment. It says the terms would bar the licensee from generating competing content.1 Authors who stay in can expect modest returns, under $100 per title per license, according to the Press. The Press describes the combined revenue as meaningful for its mission.1

To opt out, an author must sign an addendum stating that their work may suffer as a result of the Press not exercising AI rights for it.1

Background

Publishers Lunch reported on July 29, 2025 that the Press hopes the revenue will help offset university funding cuts, and that licensees include general AI companies and those focused on specialized content and inference models such as retrieval-augmented generation.2 The Press had already signed a similar deal for some journal content.1

The Press later joined Google's Expert Intelligence program for e-books in Google Play Books, a separate arrangement.3

What it means for data sellers

An opt-out model is efficient for a seller holding rights for many contributors, but it carries reputation risk and needs a clear process. Sellers should still ask for the buyer's name to be disclosed to the contributors who are affected.

How the deal came together

  1. The Press wrote to its authors. In July 2025 the Press announced the plan and gave authors until the end of August to opt out.
  2. Opting out carried a cost. Authors who opt out must sign an addendum acknowledging their work may suffer because the Press will not exercise AI rights for it.
  3. Limits were written into the terms. The terms would bar the licensee from generating content that competes with the Press's books.
  4. A journals deal came first. The Press said it had already signed a similar deal covering some of its journal content.

Takeaways for companies with data

  • Opt-out structures move faster than opt-in but draw sharper author objections.
  • A seller worried that its books are already in a model may sign to gain contract terms.
  • Per-title author payouts can be small even when total revenue is meaningful.

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. Johns Hopkins press artificial intelligence (The Baltimore Banner, July 2025)
  2. Johns Hopkins University Press will license its books to train AI (Publishers Lunch, July 2025)
  3. Google Expert Intelligence arrives in Play Books and Gemini Notebook (iTech Post, August 2026)

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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.