The New York Times has agreed to its first artificial intelligence licensing arrangement, partnering with Amazon to allow the tech giant to use the newspaper’s editorial content across its AI platforms.
The multi-year agreement will enable Amazon to incorporate news articles from The Times, as well as content from NYT Cooking and sports publication The Athletic, into various customer experiences including the Alexa voice assistant. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
“The deal is consistent with our long-held principle that high-quality journalism is worth paying for,” said Meredith Kopit Levien, chief executive officer of The Times, in a note to staff. “It aligns with our deliberate approach to ensuring that our work is valued appropriately, whether through commercial deals or through the enforcement of our intellectual property rights.”
The partnership marks a significant shift for The Times, which in 2023 sued OpenAI and Microsoft for copyright infringement, accusing the companies of using millions of the newspaper’s articles without permission to train automated chatbots. That litigation remains ongoing, with The Times recording £4.4 million in pretax legal costs in its first quarter.
Under the Amazon agreement, excerpts from Times reporting will include attribution and links back to the newspaper’s website in some instances. The content will also be used to train Amazon’s proprietary AI models, the company confirmed.
The deal comes as news organisations grapple with how to respond to the rapid emergence of AI technology. Whilst The Times pursued legal action against OpenAI, other major publishers including Axel Springer, Condé Nast and News Corp have opted for licensing agreements to receive revenue in exchange for their content usage.
Amazon has been working to catch up in the AI race after being caught off-guard by the launch of ChatGPT in late 2022. The company has since invested £4 billion in Anthropic, one of OpenAI’s chief rivals, and has been acquiring AI talent through deals with start-ups including Adept and Covariant.
The partnership could help Amazon enhance its AI offerings whilst providing The Times with a new revenue stream and potential subscriber acquisition channel. The newspaper recently won four Pulitzer Prizes and exceeded digital subscriber growth expectations in the first quarter.
