AI companies are in a race to partner with prominent media outlets for access to their premium content with which to train their AI models and to feature in their responses. Media companies like Condé Nast, the Associated Press, The Atlantic and Financial Times have already signed deals with OpenAI, while others like the New York Times and Chicago Tribune have taken legal action against the AI giant.

Like OpenAI, Perplexity, an AI-powered search engine that positions itself as an alternative to Google, had faced criticism over unauthorised use of publishers’ content. In June Forbes accused the company of “ripping off” its stories, as did a few other publishers.

To improve its standing in the industry Perplexity launched its “Publishers Program” in July promising to share revenue with media outlets. Their first batch includes partners like TIME, Der Spiegel, Fortune, Entrepreneur and The Texas Tribune. Automattic has also joined with WordPress.com but without Tumblr. Amongst them all, only TIME has previously signed a multi-year partnership with OpenAI in June this year.

The Fix asked Sara Platnick, a spokesperson from Perplexity, about the rationale behind the program. “Technology like search engines, social media and AI have changed the financial structures of media companies. If we lose publishers reporting on new facts, we lose fresh content for our users to access,” Platnick says. Their goal is to develop AI tools without compromising the value of journalism.

“There are a few key components to this program: revenue-sharing; access to our APIs; and a complimentary one-year subscription to our product,” Platnick says.

Revenue share with media publishers

Unlike OpenAI’s licensing fee deals with media outlets, Perplexity shares revenue on a per-source basis. This is a predetermined double-digit revenue percentage that the news outlets gain every time their content is used and cited by Perplexity.

To offer a more nuanced understanding to publishers on what type of content is used by Perplexity they have teamed up with ScalePost.ai. Revenue-sharing will begin later this year when Perplexity introduces advertising on its platform.

Publishers have control over the content used by Perplexity

Platnick says the content shared “is at the discretion of each publisher.”

Der Spiegel expressed how they are going to lend their content only to appear on Perplexity’s platform and not to be used to train their AI model.

WordPress.com on the other hand has left the decision power on whether the content appears on Perplexity to its numerous content creators.

Development of AI search engine on publishers’ website

Earlier in March, the Financial Times launched a generative AI tool for its subscribers to get an AI-generated reply by using the FT content. A similar tool is under development at Der Spiegel. Platnick adds, “We’ve seen a genuine interest from newsrooms in how technology like ours can be incorporated into their own websites.”

Perplexity is in talks with multiple publishers, and they will soon introduce the second batch to their Publishers Program. Close to 30 publishers will be part of this program by the end of this year.

On paper, Perplexity’s deal highlights the worth and financial value of media content. Especially compared to OpenAI’s flat fee or set rate and Google’s almost non-existent payments to media outlets (except in Australia and Canada). Yet we are yet to see the practical impact of the program.

Source of the cover photo: Jr Korpa via Unsplash

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