Nearly two years after filing a copyright infringement lawsuit against OpenAI and Microsoft, The New York Times has entered into a groundbreaking licensing deal with Amazon, allowing the technology giant to incorporate The Times’ editorial material into its artificial intelligence systems.
Under this new agreement, Amazon will utilize content from across the Times’ extensive editorial portfolio—including news articles, pieces from the food and recipes site NYT Cooking, and coverage from The Athletic, its dedicated sports-news outlet. This partnership aims to deliver Times content across a variety of Amazon platforms, potentially integrating with the Alexa software used on Amazon’s smart-speaker devices.
While the precise financial terms of the deal remain confidential, the partnership represents Amazon’s first major licensing agreement of its kind. Conversely, OpenAI has already entered into multiple similar partnerships with other leading publishers including The Guardian, The Washington Post, The Atlantic, News Corp, and Axel Springer.
This marks the first generative AI-focused licensing initiative for The New York Times and comes against the backdrop of its contentious 2023 lawsuit alleging unauthorized use of millions of Times-produced articles for training AI models by OpenAI and Microsoft. Both of those companies have consistently refuted the accusations brought by The Times.
