Apple has begun talks in recent weeks with major news and publishing organizations seeking permission to use their materials in the development of its generative artificial intelligence systems, according to four people familiar with the discussions.
The tech giant is offering a multi-year deal worth at least $50 million to license its archives of news articles, said the people, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the delicate negotiations. Media outlets contacted by Apple include Condé Nast, publisher of Vogue and The New Yorker. NBC News. IAC owns People, The Daily Beast, and Better Homes and Gardens.
The negotiations are one of the early signs that Apple is trying to catch up with rivals in the race to develop generative AI that allows computers to create images and chat like humans. The technology, which artificial intelligence experts call a neural network, is built by recognizing patterns using large amounts of photos and digital text. For example, a computer can learn to recognize cats by analyzing thousands of cat photos.
Companies such as Microsoft, OpenAI, Google, and Meta have released chatbots and other products built using this technology. This tool could change the way people work and generate billions of dollars in revenue.
However, Apple is not participating in the public debate about AI. Siri, the company's virtual assistant, has remained largely stagnant in the decade since its release.
An Apple spokesperson declined to comment. Apple's CEO, Tim Cook, said on a call with analysts last month that Apple is “moving forward” with its AI efforts, but he declined to provide details.
Some publishers contacted by Apple were lukewarm to the proposal. Publishers are wary of jumping into business with Silicon Valley after years of repeated commercial deals with tech companies like Facebook owner Meta.
Several publisher executives were concerned that Apple's terms were too broad, according to three people familiar with the negotiations. The original proposal covered a broad license for publishers to archive published content, potentially exposing them to legal liability arising from Apple's use of their content.
Apple is also vague about how it intends to apply generative AI to the news industry, which officials say is a potential competitive risk given the large number of viewers who watch news on Apple devices. said.
Still, some news executives were optimistic that Apple's approach might eventually lead to a meaningful partnership. Two people familiar with the discussions spoke positively about the deal's long-term prospects and contrasted Apple's approach to seeking permission with the actions of other companies using artificial intelligence. I was already using the content to train a generative model.
Apple executives have been discussing in recent years how to accumulate the data needed to build generative AI products, according to two people familiar with the effort. Some of its competitors have been accused of taking documents from the Internet without the permission of the artists, writers, and programmers who created them, leading to several copyright lawsuits.
Apple has been reluctant to retrieve information from the Internet, partly due to its commitment to privacy. After acquiring social analytics startup Topsy in 2013, Apple executives asked Topsy to stop collecting information from Twitter and that doing so would limit the amount of information Apple might post on the social media site. It alleged that it violated the company's policy against collecting data about customers. said the two.
The explosion in artificial intelligence has raised alarm among news professionals, many of whom are worried about the use of generative AI products like OpenAI's ChatGPT to broadcast news on their own subscriber- and advertiser-facing platforms. We are concerned that this may draw in readers who would otherwise view the website.
Print news organizations, which saw their lucrative advertising businesses destroyed by online competitors decades ago, are especially cautious about striking deals with AI companies, with an eye toward preserving existing business. It has become.
In a statement, an OpenAI spokesperson said the company “respects the rights of content creators and owners,” citing recent agreements with the American Journalism Project and German publisher Axel Springer. I believe they should benefit from AI technology.”
“We remain optimistic that we can continue to find mutually beneficial ways to work together to support a rich news ecosystem,” an OpenAI spokesperson said.
