Des Moines-tied Dotdash Meredith will be contributing to the collective knowledge offered by OpenAI and its ChatGPT artificial intelligence sgystem through an agreement that allows the use of content from its publications and websites.
The agreement announced Tuesday will allow OpenAI to draw from more than 40 titles including People, Better Homes & Gardens, Investopedia and The Spruce to train AI and to answer queries through Chat GPT.
“We’re thrilled to partner with Dotdash Meredith to bring its trusted brands to ChatGPT and to explore new approaches in advancing the publishing and marketing industries,” Brad Lightcap, COO of OpenAI, which claims to have 100 million users, said in a news release.
The agreement calls for attribution and links from the content to Dotdash Meredith, which bills itself as the nation’s largest online and print publisher. In addition, Dotdash Meredith will benefit from the agreement by getting paid for use of its published material. Financial details of the agreement were not disclosed.
The uncompensated and unacknowledged use of media companies’ content has long been a sore sport for publishers, and has resulted in lawsuits against OpenAI and Microsoft, a major investor in the company, by news organizations including the New York Times.
“We have not been shy about the fact that AI platforms should pay publishers for their content and that content must be appropriately attributed,” Dotdash Meredith CEO Neil Vogel said in the news release.
Dotdash Meredith latest publisher to reach similar deals with AI
The arrangement also will bolster a Dotdash Meredith product, D/Cipher, which allows targeting of content to consumers without the controversial use of cookies, data files that track websites users of internet browsers visit, allowing them to be targeted with ads geared to their interests. Google is ending the use of third-party cookies in its browsers.
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“We can tap the power of OpenAI’s models to make D/Cipher ad targeting more granular, more nuanced, and more effective in engaging consumers,” Jon Roberts, chief innovation officer for Dotdash Meredith, said in the news release. “This combination will be a game changer for advertisers.”
The Verge in April reported on a similar deal between The Financial Times and Open AI, which also has content arrangements with Politico, the Associated Press, and other content producers.
The product of the $2.7 billion 2021 purchase of Des Moines’ nearly 120-year-old Meredith magazine publishing company by New York-based Dotdash, an online content provider, Dotdash Meredith is a division of the publicly traded tech incubator IAC/Interactive Corp. and has offices in both cities. It also maintains the former Meredith Food Studios in Birmingham, Alabama, which develops the company’s food related content.
Reuters contributed to this article.
Kevin Baskins covers jobs and the economy for the Des Moines Register. Reach him at kbaskins@registermedia.com.
Source: ChatGPT and owner Open AI strike deal to use Dotdash Meredith content
