The Washington Post has formalised an agreement with OpenAI, allowing the Microsoft-backed artificial intelligence startup to display, summarise, and cite the newspaper’s content within ChatGPT. Under the agreement, when users query the chatbot, it will be able to offer summaries, quotes, and links to Washington Post articles, always with clear attribution and direct links so readers can explore topics in greater depth and context.
The newspaper, owned by Jeff Bezos, has been investing in integrating AI technologies into its services in recent years, launching generative tools like “Ask The Post AI” and “Climate Answers”, as well as offering AI-powered audio and summary content.
This agreement adds to a series of collaborations OpenAI has established with more than 20 media outlets and over 160 publications, including partnerships with conglomerates such as Hearst, Condé Nast, and Time. Notably, last June, OpenAI and Time signed a multi-year agreement that allows them to access historical and current articles from the magazine, either to train their AI models or to improve their products. Additionally, in August, a partnership was formalised with Condé Nast to include content from brands such as Vogue and The New Yorker.
In May, OpenAI also signed a deal with News Corp., granting rights to use content from publications such as The Wall Street Journal and The New York Post. Additionally, Reddit announced, that same month, a collaboration to train its models with content from the social platform.
However, these partnerships have generated controversy, as several publications, including The New York Times, The Chicago Tribune, and the Center for Investigative Reporting, have filed lawsuits against OpenAI and Microsoft for alleged copyright infringement. The New York Times alleged that its journalistic content had been used without authorization in the model’s training data, demanding compensation and holding the companies liable for the unauthorized use of its intellectual property.