Condé Nast, the media conglomerate that owns publications like The New Yorker, Vogue, and Wired, has announced a multi-year partnership with OpenAI to display content from Condé Nast titles in ChatGPT as well as SearchGPT, the company’s prototype AI-powered search engine. This partnership comes amid growing concerns over the unauthorized use of publishers’ content by AI companies, as evidenced by Condé Nast’s previous cease-and-desist letter to AI search startup Perplexity for using their content without permission. Condé Nast CEO Roger Lynch expressed in a memo that this collaboration with OpenAI will help compensate for lost revenue and allow for continued investment in journalism and creative work. The financial terms of the partnership remain undisclosed. Joining a growing list of publishers partnering with OpenAI, including News Corp, Vox, The Atlantic, TIME, and Axel Springer, Condé Nast’s move has not been without controversy. The New York Times even sued OpenAI and Microsoft for copyright infringement regarding their use of the publisher’s content in AI responses. Lynch has called for immediate Congressional action to ensure publishers are compensated by AI companies for using their content fully. Perplexity, accused of scraping content without permission, now plans to share advertising revenue with publishers through a newly-launched Publishers’ Program as a solution to these ongoing issues.
