OpenAI Strikes Licensing Deal with People Magazine Publisher

Publisher of People, Better Homes & Gardens, Investopedia, Food & Wine, and InStyle, by the name Dotdash Meredith, and OpenAI signed an agreement on Tuesday for the usage of AI models in D/Cipher, their ad-targeting tool. Dotdash Meredith will then grant ChatGPT a license to use its content.

Through the collaboration, OpenAI will train AI models using its articles, connect to the articles in the chatbot, and add content from Dotdash Meredith publications to ChatGPT.

New AI features for the magazine’s readers will also be developed in partnership between Dotdash Meredith and the AI company.

Dotdash Meredith will enhance D/Cipher—which assists marketers in locating customers by the content those users view—by utilizing OpenAI’s models instead of cookies. As the globe gets ready for a world without cookies, the publisher claims in a press release that OpenAI’s models would “supercharge” D/Cipher’s targeting technology. To make the advertising solution “more granular, more nuanced,” Dotdash Meredith intends to employ AI models.

CEO of Dotdash Meredith Neil Vogel states, “We have not been shy about the fact that AI platforms should pay publishers for their content and that content must be appropriately attributed.”

The most recent news outlet to collaborate with OpenAI is Dotdash. Following earlier similar arrangements from The Associated Press and Business Insider publisher Axel Springer last year, The Financial Times signed a contract with OpenAI in April. Stack Overflow also partnered with the company to improve ChatGPT 

OpenAI’s license agreements have not been well received by other news outlets. Following a similar case launched by The New York Times last year, newspapers controlled by Alden Global Capital, including the New York Daily News and the Chicago Tribune, sued OpenAI and Microsoft for copyright infringement.