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Exclusive: OpenAI Renews $5M Bet on Local News

OpenAI is committing an additional $5 million in funding and $3 million in tech credits to AJP over the next two years.

Exclusive: OpenAI Renews $5M Bet on Local News

TL;DR

  • OpenAI is committing an additional $5 million in funding and $3 million in tech credits to the American Journalism Project (AJP) over the next two years.
  • This renewed investment builds on a prior 2023 deal that helped launch AJP's Product & AI Studio, enabling nonprofit local news organizations to create AI-powered products.
  • The new deal plans to expand direct funding to more newsroom partners and broaden access to ChatGPT's enterprise products.
  • The first phase focused on helping newsrooms understand and integrate AI, leading to tools for fundraising, data analysis, translation, and civic information.
  • AJP aims to move beyond individual newsroom experimentation to implementing shared AI products and infrastructure for nonprofit local newsrooms.
  • OpenAI has also established similar AI initiatives with the Lenfest Institute for Journalism, Axios, and WAN-IFRA.
  • This investment comes as OpenAI faces lawsuits over copyright infringement from some news organizations, while other AI firms take different approaches to licensing deals.