The AI industry’s pursuit of licensed content has been a messy affair, fraught with lawsuits and allegations of copyright infringement. Now that tech companies are looking for legally safe sources of AI training data, Amazon is reportedly considering launching a marketplace where publishers could license their content directly to AI companies.
The Information reported on Monday that the e-commerce giant met with publishing executives and briefed them on its plans to launch such a marketplace. Ahead of the AWS Conference for Publishers on Tuesday, Amazon “sent out images that mention the content marketplace,” the outlet wrote.
An Amazon spokesperson contacted by TechCrunch didn’t deny the story, but also didn’t directly address the potential market, saying only, “Amazon has built long-term, innovative relationships with publishers across many areas of our business, including AWS, Retail, Advertising, AGI and Alexa. We’re always innovating together to best serve our customers, but we don’t have anything specific to share at this time.”
Amazon wouldn’t be the first major tech company to go down this path. Microsoft recently launched what it calls the Publisher Content Marketplace (PCM), which it says will provide publishers with a “new revenue stream” while giving AI systems “scaled access to premium content.” Microsoft added that PCM was designed to “provide publishers with a transparent economic 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 issue of how copyrighted material ends up in AI training data by striking deals with major news outlets and media organizations. For example, OpenAI has already signed licensing partnerships with Associated Press, Vox Media, News Corp and The Atlantic, among others.
These efforts were not enough to stop the legal fallout. The fight over copyrighted material in AI algorithms has led to a monsoon of lawsuits, and the court system is still dealing with the issue. New regulatory strategies are constantly being proposed to deal with this problem.
Media publishers have also been concerned about the ways in which AI summaries — particularly those that appear from Google in search results — can reduce traffic to their sites. One recent study claimed that such summaries had a “devastating” impact on the number of users who clicked through to websites. The Information notes that publishers may view the new marketplace content sharing system as a “more sustainable business (than current, more limited licensing partnerships) that will increase revenue” as the use of AI continues to escalate.
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