The New York Times Company has entered into a multiyear agreement with Amazon to license its content for use in artificial intelligence (AI) applications. This marks the newspaper’s first partnership involving generative AI and comes amid ongoing legal action by the Times against OpenAI and Microsoft over alleged copyright violations.
Announced on Thursday, the deal enables Amazon to use content from The New York Times, NYT Cooking, and The Athletic across a variety of its products and services. This includes incorporating real-time summaries and excerpts from Times articles into AI-powered features on platforms such as Alexa. Additionally, the licensed content may be used to help train Amazon’s proprietary large language models (LLMs), the companies said in a joint statement.
“The collaboration will make The New York Times’s original content more accessible to customers across Amazon products and services, including direct links to Times products, and underscores the companies’ shared commitment to serving customers with global news and perspectives within Amazon’s AI products,” the statement read.
The licensing agreement reflects a broader trend in the media industry as organizations respond to the rise of generative AI. While some companies have entered commercial partnerships to license their content, others including the Times itself have taken legal action to protect their intellectual property.
In December 2023, The New York Times filed a lawsuit against OpenAI and Microsoft, alleging that both companies used millions of the Times’ articles to train AI tools without permission or payment. The lawsuit is still pending. OpenAI and Microsoft have denied any wrongdoing.
Meredith Kopit Levien, CEO, New York Times, said, “This deal is consistent with our long-held principle that high-quality journalism is worth paying for. 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.”
Under the new deal, Amazon will have the right to use selected content from the Times across its ecosystem. This includes not just consumer-facing services like Alexa but also internal uses like training language models to improve their understanding of news and information.
This move signals how major news organisations are navigating the challenges and opportunities presented by AI. By licensing their content, media companies are looking to secure new revenue streams and maintain editorial control, while also protecting their journalistic work from unauthorized use.
Last month, another prominent media organization The Washington Post announced a separate AI-related partnership. The paper, which is owned by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, entered into a strategic deal with OpenAI. Under that arrangement, The Washington Post allows ChatGPT to display summaries, quotes, and links to its articles in response to user queries.
The Times’ approach balancing legal action with selected commercial agreements highlights the evolving strategies of news publishers in the AI era. As generative AI continues to influence how people access information, media companies are seeking ways to protect their work while adapting to new distribution methods.