Amazon and The New York Times enter AI-related licensing agreement

The New York Times and Amazon have entered into a that will allow Amazon access to much of the publication’s editorial content for AI-related uses. In a press release announcing the deal, The New York Times shared that this agreement will bring new features for customers like accessing summaries or excerpts of Times content using Alexa. It will also allow Amazon to train its AI models on The New York Times content.

In , The New York Times shared, “The collaboration will make The New York Times’ original content more accessible to customers across Amazon products and services including direct links to Times products and underscores the companies’ shared commitment to serving customers with global news and perspectives within Amazon’s AI products.” Access to content from NYT Cooking and The Athletic is also included in the deal.

AI models require training on vast amounts of data, and many of the companies building them are likely by training on protected materials. OpenAI and Google went so far as to to copyright laws for their models to train freely. The New York Times OpenAI and Microsoft for training their models on the company’s content without permission back in 2023, though the case .

Licensing agreements can offer additional revenue streams for companies willing to hand over user data or allow AI models to train on content created by their employees. The Washington Post is one of that have with OpenAI earlier this year. The specific contents of today’s deal, such as how much Amazon is paying, have not been disclosed. Amazon has been on a tear releasing AI-powered tools for , and .