Amazon signs first AI content deal with NYT

Amazon, the world’s leading e-commerce retailer, has agreed to pay The New York Times up to $25 million per year to license its articles for artificial intelligence training, according to The Wall Street Journal on July 30. This amount accounts for about 1 percent of the newspaper’s total revenue last year.

The Wall Street Journal reported that Amazon reached the agreement in May to pay between $20 million and $25 million annually for access to articles from The New York Times, its culinary platform NYT Cooking, and the sports publication The Athletic. This deal allows Amazon’s AI assistant Alexa to incorporate content from these sources.

The Wall Street Journal noted this is The New York Times’ first copyright license related to AI and marks Amazon’s first contract with a media outlet or publisher. The agreement illustrates how news organizations and AI developers are negotiating the worth of journalistic content amid sweeping changes in how users access information.

Earlier, OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT, secured agreements with News Corp, the parent company of the Wall Street Journal, and other publishers to use their content. The Wall Street Journal estimates that contracts supplying AI with news content will exceed $250 million over the next five years. OpenAI also signed a three-year contract valued between $25 million and $30 million with German media conglomerate Axel Springer, which owns Business Insider and Politico.

Several media organizations have initiated legal action against AI firms for using content without permission. In 2023, The New York Times filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against OpenAI and Microsoft related to its publications. Similarly, News Corp sued the AI-powered search engine Perplexity over unauthorized use of its material.


안규영 kyu0@donga.com