Microsoft has agreed to pay Sydney Morning Herald and The Age-publisher Nine for the use of its news content in Copilot AI search results.
In a first-of-its-kind deal in Australia, the agreement will see Copilot able to reference reporting by Nine outlets in AI searches by users to “contextualise” and “ground” these outputs.
Microsoft will pay an undisclosed sum to Nine to allow it to display snippets, headlines and summaries of articles from Australian Financial Review, Sydney Morning Herald, Brisbane Times, The Age and WA Today, and direct its users to the source for the complete story.
It comes amid a long-running debate over the use of copyrighted creative content to train AI systems in order to produce substantive responses to users.
While the Australian government has rejected calls to introduce a copyright exemption for tech firms, it has moved to incentivise large social media companies to enter revenue-sharing deals with Australian media companies for the use of their content.
Grounding AI outputs
Nine Entertainment CEO Matt Stanton said the deal would help to ensure the answers produced by Copilot are accurate and reliable.
“We are delighted to partner with Microsoft on this agreement,” Stanton said in a statement.
“As AI continues to evolve, the role of verified, premium journalism in grounding these outputs is essential.
“This collaboration is a win-win, delivering for users of AI while respecting copyright and protecting the long-term value of our intellectual property.”
The deal demonstrates how tech and media companies can work together to “ensure a thriving future for Australian journalism”, Microsoft Australia and New Zealand president Jane Livesey said.
“AI is transforming the way Australians connect with information, and access to trustworthy sources has never mattered more,” Livesey said in a statement.
“Our agreement with Nine will ground responses from Microsoft Copilot in trusted mastheads, giving people verified facts, a clear path to the full story, and confidence in what they read.”
While the value of the deal has not been revealed, Nine Entertainment managing director of publishing Tory Maguire said it will “unlock new revenue opportunities”.
“Microsoft has been a proactive, engaged partner who is committed to attribution of sources,” Maguire said in a statement.
“We are meeting readers where they are, and by providing important context for Copilot we ensure AI outputs are grounded in verified facts, with an easy click-through to our websites to read the full article.”
It comes after ChatGPT owner OpenAI inked a $360 million ($US250 million) five-year deal with News Corp allowing for news content to be displayed in AI answers, and for this media to be used to train its model.
Google has also sealed a deal with Australian Associated Press to make its articles available on its Gemini AI platform.
While some media companies have decided to secure deals with AI giants, the New York Times has instead launched a lawsuit against OpenAI and Microsoft over the use of its copyrighted content to train AI models.
The copyright debate
Debate has raged over tech companies using copyrighted content to train AI systems and generate answers for users since the rise of generative AI platforms.
The federal government established a reference group focusing on copyright and AI in late 2023.
Last week, a group of authors and musicians appeared at Parliament in Canberra to push the government to not introduce a copyright exemption for AI companies.
The federal government recently announced plans for a new levy on a handful of social media companies that would be offset if they entered revenue-sharing deals with local news companies for the use of their content.
This levy will be set at 2.25 per cent of a company’s local revenue.
Microsoft has not been included in this scheme, nor does it include AI platforms such as ChatGPT.
