ChatGPT and Vogue publisher Condé Nast join hands for SearchGPT partnership. What does it mean?

OpenAI, the firm behind the wildly popular generative artificial intelligence app ChatGPT, will now be able to dig into the massive content database of iconic fashion magazine Vogue and other publications of its parent company Condé Nast. This will power its AI models in enhancing news discovery and delivery, OpenAI said in a release on Tuesday (Aug 21).

The partnership, whose financial details were not disclosed, will enable OpenAI to display content from Condé Nast's other brands like The New Yorker, Condé Nast Traveler, GQ, Architectural Digest, Vanity Fair, Wired, Bon Appétit, too within ChatGPT and SearchGPT prototype.

WATCH:ChatGPT and AI: Students using chatbox to cheat in exams?

SearchGPT prototype, introduced earlier this year, is OpenAI's foray into the online search domain, offering a key challenge to Google. SearchGPT aims to give fast and timely answers with clear and relevant sources.

The New Yorker is a long-form magazine focused mainly on the American city whose name it takes, while Condé Nast Traveler is one of the leading magazines in the travel segment. GQ, or Gentleman's Quarterly, is among the oldest and most influential magazines in men's fashion and style. Vanity Fair is a lifestyle magazine, while Architectural Digest focuses on home and office design and interiors. Wired is a premier tech publication, while Bon Appétit is focused on food.

SearchGPT "offers direct links to news stories, enabling users to easily explore more in-depth content directly from the source. We plan to integrate the best of these features directly into ChatGPT in the future," OpenAI said on its website.

“We’re committed to working with Condé Nast and other news publishers to ensure that as AI plays a larger role in news discovery and delivery, it maintains accuracy, integrity, and respect for quality reporting,” it quoted Brad Lightcap, the COO of OpenAI, as saying.

Earlier, OpenAI had entered into similar partnerships with the Associated Press news agency, Axel Springer-which owns a bunch of print and online outlets- The Atlantic magazine, Dotdash Meredith, Financial Times, LeMonde, NewsCorp, Prisa Media, TIME, and Vox Media.

Roger Lynch, CEO of Condé Nast, said in a memo to staff that it will be a multi-year partnership to expand the reach of Condé Nast’s content.

"Generative AI is rapidly changing ways audiences are discovering information. It’s crucial that we meet audiences where they are and embrace new technologies while also ensuring proper attribution and compensation for the use of our intellectual property. This is exactly what we have found with OpenAI," Lynch said.

A great opportunity for legacy media companies?

The decades-old content banks of legacy media groups have suddenly become attractive for generative AI companies, who need it to feed their AI models. This is very different from the situation when tech giants like Google and Facebook used such content for linking, indexing and aggregation purposes, without sufficient compensation for the original content publishing companies. The AI-fuelled search could change all that.

In his statement, Lynch noted how news and digital media have faced steep challenges as Big Tech companies "eroded publishers’ ability to monetise content, most recently with traditional search."

"Our partnership with OpenAI begins to make up for some of that revenue, allowing us to continue to protect and invest in our journalism and creative endeavours," he said.

"It is just the beginning and we will continue what we started in Washington earlier this year - the fight for fair deals and partnerships across the industry until all entities developing and deploying artificial intelligence take seriously, as OpenAI has, the rights of publishers," he added.

(With inputs from agencies)