• by Laurie Sullivan , October 9, 2024

OpenAI intends to integrate SearchGPT into ChatGPT “by the end of the year,” but an executive told publishers the company does not intend to share ad revenue from its AI search product with publishers whose content it serves -- at least for now.

Varun Shetty, OpenAI’s head of media partnerships, told attendees at an event the company, however, will fairly compensate publishers through “significant incremental traffic from new audiences,” PressGazette reported.

He said OpenAI recognizes an opportunity to drive traffic and ensure users find information they need, as well as to correctly attribute content to publishers.

Google pays publishers for content in countries such as Australia and Canada.

In August, the company said it will pay into a California fund for publishers and journalism in exchange for serving up content in the News section of its Search platform, as a way to fund newsrooms and an AI initiative.

The commitment of nearly $250 million during the next five years also comes from state taxpayers and possibly private donors. It was announced in August.

Perplexity does have revenue-sharing agreements with some publishers, as does Microsoft. On October 1, when Microsoft announced Copilot Daily, it called out several authorized content sources.

“We are working with partners such as Reuters, Axel Springer, Hearst Magazines, USA TODAY Network and the Financial Times, and plan to add more sources over time,” according to the blog post. “We’ll also add additional personalization and controls in Copilot Daily over time.”

Shetty, who worked for nearly two years in various roles at The New York Times before moving to Meta, spoke at the Twipe Digital Growth Summit in Brussels to make a case for how OpenAI can benefit the news industry.

“No one wants to read AI-generated news”, Shetty reportedly told attendees, “but can we make it easier for journalists to recommend stories? To find the right photos within the CMS? To create that context box that sits along the side?”

SearchGPT has about 10,000 U.S. users, but it drives more referral traffic than Perplexity, according to SEO platform BrightEdge’s August data.