These licensing deals, while beneficial for OpenAI, could potentially create barriers for smaller AI companies due to the high costs involved. There are calls for a regulator-imposed "safe harbor" to protect AI vendors from legal liability, provided they adhere to certain transparency and ethical standards. However, there are concerns about the impact of AI on the news industry, and the need for publishers to be fairly compensated. The issue of access to training data for both AI incumbents and challengers is also being debated.
Key takeaways:
- OpenAI has signed contracts with Le Monde and Prisa Media to bring French and Spanish news content to its ChatGPT chatbot, contributing to its ever-expanding volume of training data.
- OpenAI is estimated to be paying between $4 million and $20 million a year for news content to train its AI models, a cost that could potentially edge out AI rivals also pursuing licensing agreements.
- There is debate over whether licensing should be the cost of doing business in the AI space, with some advocating for a regulator-imposed “safe harbor” to protect AI vendors from legal liability.
- There are concerns that only a few powerful companies will have access to vast pools of valuable training sets, leading to a potential 'brain drain' in the academic sector.