New York Times lets Amazon use articles for AI training, for example for Alexa

The New York Times is allowing Amazon to use the newspaper's editorial content to train the group's AI models. It is the daily newspaper's first agreement for artificial intelligence (AI) after it previously took legal action against the use of its own articles by AI. Amazon is now allowed to use articles from the renowned US newspaper, including recipes and content from the sports magazine The Athletic, for AI purposes, such as training AI models for Alexa products.

At the end of 2023, the New York Times sued OpenAI and Microsoft for copyright infringement, claiming that the two companies had used millions of articles from the newspaper without permission to train the AI technology they had developed. The companies are fighting back, so the proceedings are still ongoing. OpenAI is accusing the New York Times of violating the terms of use and that the New York Times "hacked" ChatGPT.

Around a year ago, eight other publishers took the matter to court and sued OpenAI and Microsoft over training data and the output of the AI services. Shortly afterwards, the first agreements were reached between AI companies and newspapers or magazines. OpenAI has entered into a deal with News Corp. so that Wall Street Journal, Times, Sun and more can be used for AI training.

Details on the Amazon deal still scarce

The New York Times' Amazon deal has a similar purpose. The agreement was made over several years, but the New York Times does not reveal the term or financial terms in the corresponding announcement. In the lawsuit against OpenAI and Microsoft, the US newspaper is not demanding a specific sum of money, but wants to hold the defendants liable for billions of dollars in damages for the illegal copying of "unique and valuable works".

In an internal memo to employees obtained by the Financial Times, the head of the New York Times explained that the Amazon deal "is consistent with our long-held principle that it is worth paying for high-quality journalism". Meredith Kopit Levien added: "It is consistent with our deliberate approach to ensuring that our work is properly recognized, whether through commercial agreements or by enforcing our intellectual property rights."

NYT shares benefit from Amazon deal

The New York Times is one of the few companies to have built a successful business model with online journalism. The Amazon deal has given the listed media company a further boost. The share price of the New York Times rose by more than 3 percent at times yesterday and was up almost 2 percent at the close of trading.

Amazon has launched an AI offensive in recent months. An improved voice assistant was announced at the end of February, as Amazon's new assistant Alexa+ can do more thanks to AI. It now chats and acts like current AI chatbots, but only with a paid subscription. Amazon also enables its users to shop on third-party websites, as the Amazon app uses AI to search and order from third-party online stores.

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