The AI industry’s pursuit of licensed content was a messy affairfull of lawsuits and accusations of copyright infringement. Now, as tech companies look for legally safe sources of AI training data, Amazon is reportedly considering launching a marketplace where publishers can license their content directly to AI companies.
The Information was mentioned On Monday the e-commerce giant met with publishing executives and notified them of its plans to launch such a marketplace. Ahead of an AWS conference for publishers that took place on Tuesday, Amazon “released slides that mention a content purchase,” the outlet wrote.
Contacted by TechCrunch, an Amazon spokesperson did not deny the story, but also did not directly address the potential purchase, saying only: “Amazon has built long-standing, innovative relationships with publishers in many areas of our business, including AWS, Retail, Advertising, AGI and Alexa. We always don’t do anything specific to share with our customers, but we better serve this issue.”
Amazon wouldn’t be the first major tech company to go that route. Microsoft recently launched what it calls the Publisher Content Marketplace (PCM), which it says will offer publishers “a new revenue stream” while also giving AI systems “scalable access to high-quality content.” Microsoft added that PCM was designed to “empower publishers with a transparent financial framework for licensing” their content.
The move is a natural next step for the AI industry, which has already sought to resolve the legally murky problem of how copyrighted material ends up in AI training data by striking deals with major news outlets and media organizations. OpenAI, for example, has already signed content licensing partnerships; with the Associated Press, Vox Media, News Corp and The Atlantic, among others.
These efforts were not enough to stave off the legal consequences. The fight over copyrighted material in artificial intelligence algorithms has led to a pipeline monsoonand the matter is still being processed by the judicial system. New regulatory strategies to address the issue are constantly suggested.
Media publishers have also been concerned about the ways in which AI summaries — particularly those displayed by Google in its search results — may be reducing traffic to their sites. A recent study claimed that such summaries had a “catastrophic” impact on the number of users clicking through to websites. The Information report notes that publishers may see the new market-based content sharing system as a “more sustainable business [than current, more limited licensing partnerships] that will scale revenue” as the use of artificial intelligence continues to scale.
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