OpenAI Funds 13 Axios Local Newsletters in Three-Year Deal
OpenAI is funding 13 Axios local newsletters over a three-year period, marking an intriguing partnership between the AI giant and the news outlet. This deal allows OpenAI to train its models on Axios' published work while providing financial support for the creation of new newsletters.
The Details:
- Investment: OpenAI is covering the startup costs of the new newsletters, including staff and technology. Axios employees also receive credits for OpenAI's enterprise tools.
- Training Data: In return, Axios grants OpenAI access to its free published content, which will be used to train the AI models.
- Duration: The partnership agreement is for three years.
As previously mentioned, Issie Lapowsky from the Columbia Journalism Review (CJR) revealed the details of this arrangement, providing a comprehensive insight into the experiment.
Axios' Experiment:
Jim VandeHei, CEO of Axios, questions whether a local newsroom can survive when most aspects of news production are automated. He wrote about the concept of "post-processable velocity," where change happens so rapidly that traditional planning becomes obsolete.
VandeHei shared his new perspective in a column, stating: "For the first time ever, my confident line of sight is six weeks tops." This shift in thinking led to the Axios OpenAI local news deal, aiming to fund 13 newsrooms over three years and foster careers for reporters within these markets.
Confidential Terms:
Neither company is disclosing the financial terms of the agreement. When asked about legal action against OpenAI, both sides remained tight-lipped, with Axios' COO, Allison Murphy, stating that the terms are confidential under the deal. This silence raises questions about the scope of the partnership and its implications for local newspapers already suing OpenAI over training on their work.
Focusing on Communities:
OpenAI initially funded newsletters in Pittsburgh, Kansas City, Boulder, and Huntsville, all chosen by Axios. While Huntsville lacks a daily newspaper, none of these cities are considered news deserts according to researchers. VandeHei aims to prove the economics first, with profitability within five years considered a success.
Matt Pearce from Rebuild Local News highlights the structural issue: "The real problem is not just that local newspapers are losing out on AI training data, but that they're being left behind as the technology advances."