Key takeaways:
What is considered gold, but only if mined right?
If you guessed data, you're right. It sits at the core of the AI technology leap.
However, its true value is only realized when ethically and legally obtained. This is a lesson investors are learning the hard way as companies like OpenAI, Google, and Meta often forget the two big Cs of data usage: consent and copyright. These oversights have led to growing concerns about data ethics and legality in AI development.
Nonetheless, OpenAI’s licensing deal with Financial Times (FT) signals some bold strokes of correction, marking a significant move to address these issues head-on.
This partnership not only exemplifies the media industry's intricate relationship with generative AI but also grounds future collaborations in innovation, protection of intellectual property rights, and ethical practices.
As this situation unfolds, let’s dive into what this alliance means for Open AI, the competition, MarTech, and the future of search.
Announced on April 29, 2024, OpenAI’s content licensing partnership allows ChatGPT to populate the Financial Times’ attributed content summaries, quotes, and links to relevant queries. In early 2024, FT signed up for OpenAI’s enterprise tools in a bid to enhance its teams’ creativity and productivity using AI.
The commercial aspects of the deal remain under wraps, but world-class data sourced by journalists is definitely worth its weight in gold.
So, does this give OpenAI an unfair advantage in the race to become a privacy-first AI market leader?
For OpenAI, this partnership is a strategic move to enhance the quality and reliability of its AI models, leveraging the Financial Times’ high-quality journalism content. So, the company gains not only access to premium content but also supports a commitment to ethical data usage. Also, the integration of FT’s data is expected to vastly improve the contextual accuracy of OpenAI’s generative models. This stands to transform AI-driven content generation for OpenAI as well as for third-party AI writing assistants that run on its model.
For FT, the deal signifies a novel revenue stream and a foothold in the rapidly evolving AI landscape while leading publications vie for subscriptions.
This deal, which potentially sets a new standard for responsible AI development, should come as no surprise, considering how tech companies have fared when it comes to data usage.
Google was slapped with a $270 million fine by the French competition authority, Autorité de la Concurrence, for copyright infringement earlier this year. Open AI has seen lawsuits from the Author’s Guild, The Intercept Media, and Raw Story, and AlterNet.
An industry-wide trend is now emerging where tech giants are using licensing deals as a proactive method to prevent future lawsuits.
The OpenAI and Financial Times partnership is especially intriguing as it seems to be a clapback at the New York Times' copyright infringement lawsuit and over 12 other lawsuits that have jeopardized OpenAI’s credibility.
Google’s and Reddit’s about $60 million per year data licensing deal from February 2024 caused many frowns as Google later was accused of ranking Reddit results at the top of SERPs.
Apple, too, subtly entered the generative AI race, signing a deal ranging between $25 million and $50 million with Shutterstock. And let’s not forget the latest partnership with OpenAI that makes Apple Intelligence actually intelligent (whether Elon likes it or not).
Google has its search and enterprise tools, Apple has its gated first-party data from a suite of hardware and software, and Meta owns Facebook and Instagram. OpenAI, on the other hand, has started from scratch and earned its way into Microsoft stake ownership.
While Microsoft owns part of OpenAI, its inclination toward B2Bs doesn’t give OpenAI the same data diversity needed to train a universally applicable model like ChatGPT that has a strong B2C appeal.
The collaboration with the Financial Times sets the ball rolling for OpenAI to:
With pivotal collaborations and strategic moves, OpenAI is positioning itself to address core challenges and broaden its market impact.
Analysis of OpenAI’s performance using G2 data reveals that while its ChatGPT models are leading on the G2 GridⓇ with an impressive 4.7 rating out of 5 in the AI Chatbots category, the enterprise sector poses significant challenges. Reviewer feedback highlights concerns about the veracity of information produced by ChatGPT, pinpointing a critical area for improvement.
This partnership with Financial Times is a robust step toward enhancing data quality and ensuring the accuracy of AI-generated content, thereby addressing one of the major pain points highlighted in the above word cloud.
In a broader sense, as we talk about large language models (LLMs)—which fuel these AI chatbots, agents, and tools—it seems like the AI race is strong between the tech giants Meta, Google, and OpenAI. However, based on G2 reviews, the on-ground reality is an interesting revelation.
Source: G2 GridⓇ
Meta’s Llama remains invisible on the G2 GridⓇ, its limited reviews signaling a need for a mega push to build a stronger market presence. A quick look at the G2 GridⓇ for LLMs shows that Anthropic’s Claude is a Niche player, while enterprise-level competitor IBM Watsonx.ai sits at the cusp of being a Contender and Niche player.
It goes down to the wire between category Leaders, Google with Gemini and BERT at 4.4/5, and OpenAI’s GPT 3 and GPT 4 at 4.6/5.
Source: G2 Compare Tool
However, OpenAI has an edge over Google regarding its rating on key criteria like Ease of Use, Meeting Requirements, and Direction of Product.
From a performance and usability perspective, OpenAI again wins in quality of documentation and contextual understanding, which is surprising considering Google’s real-time access to live search data.
But what’s a good piece of technology if not precise, ethical, and compliant? This is where OpenAI is doubling down on its product through collaborations with publications like FT.
OpenAI’s ChatGPT models 3 and 4 leap ahead with strong bias mitigation, data privacy, content moderation, transparency, and ethical guidelines. This means, it won’t be telling users to glue pizza and eat rocks ever.
Source: G2 Compare Tool
Before we declare OpenAI as the hands-down frontrunner, here comes an interesting twist. A closer examination of the GridⓇ shows generative AI stack technology companies Tune AI (4.4/5) and Crowdin (4.6/5) as High Performers.
So, while the giants contend for the top position, will challenger tech companies rise as surprise winners? Will the wave of partnerships also flow into the MarTech industry? Time will tell, or you could run a comparison to derive your answers.
While we have learned how significant the OpenAI-FT deal is in privacy-first AI leadership, its impact extends beyond immediate benefits. The partnership stands to bring significant changes across the media and publishing industry. Here are six key areas:
Unlocking new revenue streams is a game-changer for publishers. Imagine media giants like FT monetizing their rich archives through licensing—something that wasn't possible before.
This approach not only opens up fresh income sources but also fosters sustainable business practices in journalism. It's a win-win, providing the financial backing needed to support high-quality reporting.
This partnership signifies a shift in content distribution dynamics. With AI becoming more integrated into content creation and distribution, publishers could start teaming up more with AI developers, leading to innovations in how news is consumed and monetized.
A third group that could benefit from the OpenAI-Financial Times collaboration are in-house marketers, content creators, and agencies that cater to the highly regulated finance industry. Imagine having enhanced content quality, built-in compliance assistance, and fresh content formats at your fingertips.
This deal could really level up the way marketers operate in this space.
This trend of strategic partnerships will naturally affect Google SERPs as generative search takes center stage. While zero-click search has already cannibalized publishers, feathers will be further ruffled as small and large publishers compete for SERP real estate and ad revenue, all while trying to outshine Google’s algorithm updates.
A key concern in this shift is the accuracy of information retrieval, especially for critical your money your life (YMYL) user queries. As AI-driven content becomes more common in search results, a crucial question emerges: will users trust these AI-generated results, particularly for sensitive topics like finance and health?
The deal cracks open a dire need for essential ethical considerations and regulatory challenges. OpenAI and Microsoft have already faced criticism for using content without appropriate permissions, spotlighting the need for clear regulations.
Ensuring ethical use of data and compliance with copyright laws will be pivotal in maintaining public trust and achieving long-term success in AI integration.
The push for responsible AI usage strengthens with the introduction of specific laws like the EU AI Act. Though not directly affecting the US market, there will be global AI laws that marketers, brands, and technologists will need to watch out for.
The OpenAI-FT partnership heralds the beginning of a new era for AI-media collaborations. Since then, more media companies, such as News Corp, Axel Springer, Vox Media, The Atlantic, and The Associated Press, have opted to license their content for AI training. The potential for similar deals will likely just grow.
Every responsible marketer knows that technology is only as useful as the person harnessing it and data, while a gold mine, can also undermine business if not used, stored, and mined responsibly. OpenAI learned this lesson the hard way through the NYT lawsuit, where it could stand to lose over hundreds of millions in damages. This serves as a potent reminder that responsible data usage is not just ethical but essential for survival in the AI era.
While a lot has happened these past weeks in the AI landscape, the race for AI dominance gets fiercer. Tune into our next Tech Signals for the best (and most entertaining) analysis.
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G2 data reviewed by Matthew Miller
Edited by Shanti S Nair and Sinchana Mistry
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