OpenAI, the renowned artificial intelligence research organization, is facing criticism for allegedly disregarding its licensing agreement with media outlet Business Insider. The Insider Union, a union representing employees at Business Insider, recently penned a letter highlighting evidence that OpenAI has failed to attribute and link to Business Insider articles as required by the agreement.
According to the letter obtained by Nieman Lab, union members conducted tests with OpenAI’s ChatGPT language model, prompting it to search for specific articles that were exclusive scoops by Business Insider. However, the results provided by ChatGPT either ignored the requested links or provided incorrect ones from different media outlets. In some instances, ChatGPT even generated fake links to Business Insider stories.
The Insider Union expressed deep concern over OpenAI’s alleged downplaying of Business Insider’s work, stating that repeated attempts to prompt ChatGPT to link directly to their scoops have been unsuccessful. OpenAI, when approached for comment, acknowledged that attributions and links to partner news organizations like Business Insider have not been implemented yet, without providing a timeline for when this would occur.
OpenAI has entered into similar agreements with other media companies, but this incident highlights the challenges and lack of transparency surrounding such partnerships. The collaboration between tech companies and news media has often been tumultuous, with news outlets often being the ones to suffer. The infamous pivot to video initiated by Facebook is a prime example, which resulted in many news organizations struggling and numerous journalists losing their jobs.
While it remains to be seen whether this issue with OpenAI and Business Insider is a temporary setback or indicative of a larger problem, it underscores the potential pitfalls of news organizations partnering with tech companies in their quest for relevance and audience engagement.