The publisher of one of Jacksonville’s newspapers may soon be getting some help from artificial intelligence.
The Hearst Corporation announced Tuesday it has become the latest major publisher to sign a content partnership with AI giant OpenAI. Under the terms of the deal, New York-based Hearst will license its vast archives, containing more than 150 years of material, to the San Francisco-based maker of the ChatGPT generative AI tool. OpenAI will be able to integrate Hearst content into its chatbot and other products.
Hearst publishes more than 40 newspapers and 20 magazines brands – including the Jacksonville Journal-Courier and the Alton Telegraph. Hearst said its other businesses outside of magazines and newspapers — including Fitch Ratings and a minority stake in ESPN — are not part of the partnership.
Neither Hearst nor OpenAI disclosed the terms of the deal.
Hearst said in a statement that content appearing in ChatGPT “will feature appropriate citations and direct links, providing transparency and easy access to the original Hearst sources.”
Hearst joins several other major media organizations that have struck similar arrangements with OpenAI within the last two years.
The New York Times was reportedly in the midst of negotiating a similar deal last year but the negotiations broke down. Instead, the Times has sued the company in federal court.
The case, which is ongoing, accuses OpenAI of copyright infringement and other violations, saying the startup fed protected New York Times content into its chatbots and profited from the material without just compensation.
Authors including Michael Chabon, Ta-Nehisi Coates and comedian Sarah Silverman have also sued OpenAI in federal court. They say ChatGPT’s ability to pull up information about their work is proof the bot was trained on their writing without compensation. OpenAI has claimed fair use under copyright law. Those cases are also ongoing.