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Le Monde signs content partnership with OpenAI

OpenAI partnered with French daily Le Monde to bring its journalism to ChatGPT, with content also usable to train OpenAI models. Financial terms were not disclosed.

SAN FRANCISCO, March 13, 2024 - OpenAI announced a partnership with French daily Le Monde, alongside a separate deal with Spanish media group Prisa Media, to develop news-related uses of ChatGPT. OpenAI said it will be able to use Le Monde content to train the models behind its AI. Financial terms were not disclosed.1

Terms of the deal

Reuters reported, in a story carried by Malay Mail, that OpenAI will be able to use content from Le Monde and from Prisa Media titles, including El Pais, Cinco Dias and El HuffPost, to train its AI models.1 OpenAI's chief operating officer, Brad Lightcap, said the goal is to let ChatGPT users around the world connect with news in new ways that are interactive and insightful.1

Le Monde chief executive Louis Dreyfus said the partnership allows the paper to expand its reach and to keep providing accurate, verified, balanced news at scale. He described Le Monde as France's leading news outlet, with 600,000 subscribers and more than two million daily users.1 The coverage did not state a price or how long the agreement runs.

Background

The Le Monde and Prisa announcement followed OpenAI's December 2023 deal with Axel Springer and its July 2023 deal with the Associated Press, and preceded its April 2024 agreement with the Financial Times.2 Together they formed the first wave of OpenAI's publisher licensing program, which came while The New York Times and other outlets were suing OpenAI over the use of their journalism.

What it means for data sellers

Le Monde's deal shows that a seller with a strong subscription business can still license content to an AI company, and that the pitch can rest on distribution in a new interface as well as on payment. Sellers should be explicit about whether training is permitted, since OpenAI described both uses at announcement.

It also shows that foreign-language and regional data has value. French, Spanish and other non-English archives can fill gaps in a model's coverage, which is a point of leverage when negotiating.

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

How the deal came together

  1. OpenAI announced two European partnerships. On March 13, 2024 OpenAI announced partnerships with Le Monde and Spain's Prisa Media in an online post.
  2. Content use covers display and training. OpenAI said it could use the publishers' content to train the models powering its AI.
  3. Le Monde framed it as reach and revenue. Chief executive Louis Dreyfus said the deal expands reach while upholding accurate, verified news.
  4. Terms stayed private. No financial terms or length of term were published.

Takeaways for companies with data

  • Publishers with paying subscribers still licensed, citing reach and protection of revenue.
  • A single announcement can bundle separate sellers, but each negotiates its own terms.
  • Non-US publishers can license into the US AI market, and language coverage is part of the value.

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. OpenAI partners with Le Monde and Prisa Media (Reuters via Malay Mail, March 2024)
  2. OpenAI inks strategic tie-up with UK's Financial Times, including content use (TechCrunch, April 2024)

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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.