AI Watch.dog

Content Licensing Deals

AI companies have been quietly paying publishers to license journalism, blogs, and art. The exact terms of most deals are unknown. Paying for content may conflict with the companies' claim that training generative AI is fair use.

Last updated Mar 31, 2025.
  1. Associated Press → OpenAI on Jul 13, 2023. The American media giant licenses news stories from 1985 to the present for AI training, according to an AP press release.
  2. Axel Springer → OpenAI on Dec 13, 2023. The German publisher of Politico, Business Insider, and a variety of other newspapers and magazines licenses news to OpenAI in a 3-year deal worth "tens of millions of euros," according to Bloomberg News.
  3. Reddit → Google on Feb 16, 2024. For around $60 million per year, the deal "will facilitate more content-forward displays of Reddit information that will make [Google] products more helpful for our users and make it easier to participate in Reddit communities and conversations," according to Google's announcement. According to Reddit's announcement, Google gets "an efficient and structured way to access the vast corpus of existing content on Reddit."
  4. Automattic → OpenAI and Midjourney on Feb 27, 2024. Automattic licenses text and images from Tumblr and WordPress.com. 404 Media reports on "a messy and controversial process" in which Tumblr may have shared "a huge number of user posts that it wasn’t supposed to.
  5. Wiley → (unknown) on Mar 7, 2024. Wiley, a publisher of books and academic journals has "executed a $23 million content rights project with a large tech company." Wiley's CEO says he is "working to uncover similar content opportunities with other AI players."
  6. Le Monde, Prisa Media → OpenAI on Mar 13, 2024. European media giants license news stories to OpenAI. The deal "provides for references to Le Monde articles to be highlighted and systematically accompanied by a logo, a hyperlink, and the titles of the articles used as references," according to a Le Monde press release.
  7. Financial Times → OpenAI on Apr 29, 2024. The Financial Times (ft.com) agrees to a deal that will "enhance ChatGPT with attributed content, help improve its models’ usefulness by incorporating FT journalism, and collaborate on developing new AI products and features for FT readers," according to an FT press release.
  8. Stack Overflow → OpenAI on May 6, 2024. OpenAI will use discussions from Stack Overflow "to improve model performance," according to OpenAI's announcement.
  9. Dotdash Meredith → OpenAI on May 7, 2024. The publisher of People, Better Homes & Gardens, Food & Wine, Verywell, InStyle, and Investopedia licenses magazine and website content to OpenAI for an undisclosed amount. "OpenAI will display content and links attributed to DDM in relevant ChatGPT responses," according to DDM's press release.
  10. Taylor & Francis → Microsoft on May 8, 2024. A major publisher of books and academic journals is "providing Microsoft non-exclusive access to advanced learning content and data to help improve relevance and performance of AI systems." The deal is "worth almost £8m ($10m) in its first year," TheBookseller.com reports. "Authors claim they have not been told about the AI deal, were not given the opportunity to opt out and are receiving no extra payment."
  11. Reddit → OpenAI on May 16, 2024. "OpenAI will bring enhanced Reddit content to ChatGPT and new products, helping users discover and engage with Reddit communities," according to OpenAI's announcement. "To do so, OpenAI will access Reddit’s Data API, which provides real-time, structured, and unique content from Reddit. This will enable OpenAI’s AI tools to better understand and showcase Reddit content, especially on recent topics." OpenAI will also become a Reddit advertising partner. TechCrunch reports that Reddit "has contractual agreements to license its data to customers including Google worth a combined over $200 million."
  12. NewsCorp → OpenAI on May 25, 2024. Media conglomerate NewsCorp (which owns The Wall Street Journal and Fox, among others) licenses journalism for AI training in a deal that "could be worth more than $250 million over five years," according to Reuters.
  13. Vox Media → OpenAI on May 29, 2024. Vox Media, which operates The Verge, Eater, The Cut, Vulture, and other websites, licenses its journalism and blogs to OpenAI for training.
  14. The Atlantic → OpenAI on May 29, 2024. The Atlantic licenses its 165+ years of journalism to OpenAI for training.
  15. Time → OpenAI on Jun 27, 2024. Time licenses current and archived articles from its 101-year history.
  16. Financial Times, Axel Springer, The Atlantic, Fortune, Universal Music Group → ProRata.ai on Aug 6, 2024. ProRata claims to have "invent[ed] generative AI attribution technology to compensate and credit content owners."
  17. Condé Nast → OpenAI on Aug 20, 2024. The publisher of The New Yorker, Vogue, Vanity Fair, Bon Appetit, and WIRED signs a multi-year licensing deal with OpenAI.
  18. Wiley → (unknown) on Aug 30, 2024. Wiley announces a total of $44 million in licensing deals with unnamed AI companies, and confirms there will be "no specific opt-out for authors."
  19. Reuters → Meta on Oct 25, 2024. "We can confirm that Reuters has partnered with tech providers to license our trusted, fact-based news content to power their AI platforms. The terms of these deals remain confidential," said a spokesperson for Reuters.
  20. HarperCollins → Microsoft on Nov 19, 2024. HarperCollins licenses nonfiction titles to Microsoft for generative AI training. "HarperCollins authors will have the option to participate or not, the company said."
  21. LA Times, The Independent, and others → Perplexity on Dec 5, 2024. Perplexity announced the addition of "more than a dozen new media partners...which involves sharing ad revenue from interactions when a publisher's content is referenced," according to Reuters. "The program also gives publishers access to Perplexity's...API, which allows software programs to interact with each other, and also provides data analytics to track trends and content performance."
  22. Associated Press → Google on Jan 15, 2025. For an undisclosed amount of money, AP will "now deliver a feed of real-time information to help further enhance the usefulness of results displayed in the Gemini app," according to Google.
  23. Axios → OpenAI on Jan 15, 2025. OpenAI will fund four local Axios newsrooms and provide technology to "build a system for creation, distribution, and monetization of our journalism," says Axios CEO. In return, "ChatGPT will use Axios journalism to answer user queries with attributed summaries, quotes and links to Axios stories."
  24. Bertelsmann → OpenAI on Jan 22, 2025. Bertelsmann, the owner of Penguin Random House and the BMG music company, "will implement OpenAI’s ChatGPT Enterprise at its companies to increase the efficiency of existing processes in the daily workflow." Bertelsmann's announcement does not state what OpenAI receives in this "strategic collaboration." Bertelsmann CFO: "We are aware that AI has enormous potential to drive innovation, efficiency, and creativity in all parts of our company. ... Together with our partners, we will continue to support the work of our creative professionals through a targeted and responsible use of AI."
  25. News/Media Alliance → ProRata.ai on Mar 26, 2025. As the leading trade association for news media publishers, News/Media Alliance is offering its members the opportunity to opt into a content license with ProRata AI for use with its Gist.AI product. ProRata’s attribution technology will identify when publisher content is used in generative AI answers, attribute the information to them, and compensate them for the use of their content. ProRata will pay 50% of all revenues from Gist.AI to publishers. Some News/Media Alliance members, including McClatchy, the Atlantic, and the MIT Technology Review, among others, are already content partners with ProRata AI, and we expect many more to take advantage of this opportunity.