Amazon plans AI content marketplace where publishers can license content to AI firms

Amazon may launch a marketplace where media sites can sell their content to AI companies

The AI industry's pursuit of licensable content has been a messy affair, filled with lawsuits and accusations of copyright infringement. Now, as tech companies look for legally safe sources of AI training data, Amazon is reportedly considering launching a marketplace where publishers can license their content directly to AI companies. The Information reported Monday that the e-commerce giant has been meeting with publishing executives and alerting them to its plans to launch such a marketplace. Ahead of an AWS conference for publishers that occurred Tuesday, Amazon "circulated slides that mention a content marketplace," wrote the outlet. Reached by TechCrunch, an Amazon spokesperson didn't deny the story but didn't directly address the would-be marketplace either, saying only: "Amazon has built long-lasting, innovative relationships with publishers across many areas of our business, including AWS, Retail, Advertising, AGI, and Alexa. We are always innovating together to best serve our customers, but we have nothing specific to share on this subject at this time." Amazon wouldn't be the first major tech company to take this route. Microsoft recently launched what it calls a Publisher Content Marketplace (PCM), which it says will give publishers "a new revenue stream" while also providing AI systems with "scaled access to premium content." Microsoft added that the PCM was designed to "empower publishers with a transparent economic framework for licensing" their content. The move is a natural next step for the AI industry, which has already sought to solve the legally nebulous problem of how copyrighted material ends up in AI training data by forging deals with major news outlets and media organizations. OpenAI, for instance, has already signed content-licensing partnerships with the Associated Press, Vox Media, News Corp, and The Atlantic, among others. Those efforts haven't been enough to stem the legal fallout. The fight over copyrighted material in AI algorithms has led to a monsoon of lawsuits, and the issue is still being worked out by the judicial system. New regulatory strategies to deal with the issue are being proposed all the time. Media publishers have also fretted about the ways in which AI summaries -- particularly those surfaced by Google in its search results -- may be depressing traffic to their sites. One recent study claimed that such summaries have had a "devastating" impact on the number of users clicking through to websites. The Information's report notes that publishers may view the new marketplace-based content-sharing system as a "more sustainable business [than current, more limited licensing partnerships] that will scale up revenue" as AI usage continues to escalate.

Amazon discusses AI content marketplace with publishers, The Information reports

Feb 9 (Reuters) - Amazon (AMZN.O), opens new tab has signaled to publishing industry executives that it is planning to launch a marketplace where publishers can sell their content to firms offering artificial intelligence products, The Information reported on Monday. Ahead of an Amazon Web Services conference on Tuesday, AWS has circulated slides that mention a content marketplace, the report said, citing two people who spoke with Amazon about the project. The slides show AWS grouping the marketplace with its core AI tools, including Bedrock and Quick Suite, when describing products publishers can use in their businesses, the report added. The report comes as publishers and AI companies negotiate over the rules for using online content, whether to train models or to generate answers for users, with publishers pressing for usage-based fees that rise with how much their content is used. Amazon did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment. Last week, Microsoft (MSFT.O), opens new tabsaid, opens new tab it is working on a Publisher Content Marketplace (PCM), an AI licensing hub that shows usage terms set by publishers. Reporting by Juby Babu in Mexico City; Editing by Rashmi Aich Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles., opens new tab

Amazon May Launch Marketplace for Publishers to Sell Content to AI Firms

Amazon is reportedly in discussions with publishers about launching a marketplace where media sites could sell and license their content directly to AI firms. According to a report by The Information, Amazon has told publishing industry executives that it is considering launching a marketplace that would allow publishers to offer articles, data, and other material to companies developing AI products. Two people who spoke with Amazon about the project described the discussions to the news outlet. Ahead of an Amazon Web Services (AWS) conference for publishers held Tuesday, the company "circulated slides that mention a content marketplace." The proposed platform would act as a central hub where AI companies could formally license content instead of relying on information scraped from the open web. Currently, many AI systems gather data online without clear agreements or fair payment arrangements. An Amazon spokesperson tells The Information that the company has "nothing specific to share" about the report. The spokesperson added: "Amazon has built long-lasting, innovative relationships with publishers across many areas of our business, including AWS, Retail, Advertising, AGI, and Alexa. We are always innovating together to best serve our customers, but we have nothing specific to share on this subject at this time." The reported talks come as publishers and AI companies continue negotiating how AI firms can access and use online content, whether to train models or generate answers for users. Publishers say the growth of AI chatbots and AI-generated search summaries is reducing traffic to their websites. Lower search referrals can translate into declines in readership and advertising revenue. For instance, The Washington Post partly attributed falling search traffic and the rise of generative AI to recent staff layoffs. Several major AI companies have signed agreements with established media organizations in an effort to address concerns about copyrighted material appearing in training datasets. OpenAI, for example, has entered into content-licensing partnerships with the Associated Press and News Corp, among others. While the discussions appear to be at an early stage, any eventual marketplace might not be limited to written articles and datasets. If it were expanded to include licensed photos and other visual material, it could also affect photographers and other creators who have raised concerns about their work being used to train AI systems without clear consent or payment.

Amazon reportedly wants to help shop media site content to AI companies

Amazon may be the next tech giant trying to help AI companies get their hands on publisher content. According to TechCrunch, citing original reporting from The Information, Amazon is considering launching a marketplace that would allow media companies to license their content directly to AI firms. The company has reportedly been meeting with publishing executives and circulating slides ahead of an AWS conference that reference a "content marketplace," per The Information. When reached by TechCrunch, Amazon didn't deny the plans but stopped short of confirming them, saying only that it works with publishers across AWS, retail, advertising, AGI, and Alexa and has "nothing specific to share." The move also comes amid mounting lawsuits and scrutiny over how AI models are trained on copyrighted material. The proposal is notable given the increasingly tense relationship between publishers and AI companies. As Mashable has previously reported, investigations have accused Common Crawl -- a nonprofit web archive used by major AI developers -- of enabling access to paywalled journalism, claims the organization denies. At the same time, AI web browsers like OpenAI's ChatGPT, Atlas, and Perplexity's Comet have reportedly been able to bypass some publisher paywalls by blending in with regular user traffic. If publishers don't want Google to use their content for AI training, they have to opt out of appearing in Google search results altogether. Publishers have described the situation as a traffic apocalypse, with AI summaries siphoning clicks and revenue. A centralized marketplace could offer what some executives see as a more scalable, structured way to monetize content as AI usage grows. Whether Amazon actually launches the marketplace remains to be seen. However, after years of scraping, lawsuits, and uneasy partnerships, Big Tech increasingly appears ready to put a price tag on the internet.

Amazon Ready to Take on Microsoft with AI Content Licensing Hub: Report

The company is said to have shared slides about the project internally Amazon is reportedly planning to launch an artificial intelligence (AI) content marketplace to provide a common ground for publishers and AI developers. As per the report, the project could be headed by the Seattle-based tech giant's cloud computing division Amazon Web Services (AWS). The project is said to be at the discussion stage currently, and it is unclear how much progress has been made around it. Notably, last week, Microsoft formally introduced its own marketplace to let AI players quickly access licensed content while content publishers get paid for it. Amazon Reportedly Planning an AI Content Marketplace According to The Information, Amazon has started internal discussions on launching an AI content marketplace. The concept of a marketplace where publishers, as well as AI companies and developers, can come together to speed up the process of licensing content has been brought up several times in recent months. Many AI companies have shown an interest towards ethically procuring data from publishers to train their large language models (LLMs), after multiple firms faced lawsuits for using copyrighted content without permission. However, the licensing process can often be complicated and lengthy, requiring legal scrutiny. This makes acquiring a large volume of data quickly unfeasible. While some AI companies have struck deals with news publishers, the number of such deals remains minuscule. Some have argued that a marketplace where publishers register content, set the terms for licensing, and receive immediate payment on the basis of usage in return for immediate access could help both publishers and AI developers. As per the report, the tech giant has started discussing the plans to launch an AI content marketplace internally. Citing unnamed sources familiar with the project, the publication claimed that AWS shared slides about the project internally, ahead of its conference. The slides reportedly mention the AI content marketplace, and also reference adding the division's core AI tools to the platform. Some of the tools mentioned reportedly include Bedrock and Quick Suite. It is unlikely that the company will make an announcement regarding this at its conference, but given how Microsoft has already launched its marketplace and has onboarded both publishers and AI firms, Amazon would likely want to make the announcement as soon as possible.

Amazon is coming up with AI marketplace? All eyes on AWS conference on Tuesday

Amazon AI marketplace: Ahead of an Amazon Web Services conference on Tuesday, AWS has circulated slides that mention a content marketplace. Amazon has signaled to publishing industry executives that it is planning to launch ⁠a marketplace where publishers can sell their content to firms offering artificial intelligence products, The Information reported on Monday. Ahead of an Amazon Web Services conference on Tuesday, AWS has circulated slides that mention a content marketplace, the report said, citing two people who spoke with Amazon about the project, Reuters reported. The slides show AWS grouping the marketplace with its core AI tools, including Bedrock and Quick Suite, when describing products publishers can use in their businesses, the report added. The report comes as publishers and AI companies negotiate over the rules for using online content, whether to train models or to generate answers for users, with publishers pressing for usage-based fees that rise with how much their ⁠content is ⁠used. Amazon did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment. Last week, Microsoft said it is working on a Publisher Content Marketplace (PCM), an AI licensing hub that shows usage terms set by publishers.

Tech Giants Look to Bridge AI and Publishing Worlds | PYMNTS.com

By completing this form, you agree to receive marketing communications from PYMNTS and to the sharing of your information with our sponsor, if applicable, in accordance with our Privacy Policy and Terms and Conditions. That's according to a report Monday (Feb. 16) from the Wall Street Journal (WSJ), which notes that the advent of new content marketplaces marks a major evolution in the relationship between companies like OpenAI, Meta and Perplexity and the publishers whose material helps their AI tools answer queries. News companies have turned to litigation and/or licensing deals in response, with the likes of Condé Nast and The New York Times getting tens of millions of dollars per year from AI firms, the WSJ said. Smaller publishers, however, haven't been as lucky, and larger companies want to be sure they're properly compensated. "The one-off deals are always going to be desirable, they're just not readily available," said Mark Howard, chief operating officer at Time, which has a licensing agreement with OpenAI. "A vibrant marketplace with enough of the supply will attract demand." Enter what the WSJ calls a fledgling "matchmaking" service. Microsoft recently began a pilot with publishers such as People, the Associated Press and Hearst, whose content will be purchased by Yahoo and Microsoft's Copilot. "We very much intend to scale this," said Tim Frank, corporate vice president at Microsoft, who noted that the company has invested $10 million in the program. The aim is to let publishers set their own pricing and terms, which could vary according to factors like how new the material is or what type of content they sell. The WSJ report follows a similar story last week from The Information, which said that Amazon was in talks with publishing executives about developing a marketplace that would allow publishers to sell their content directly to companies creating AI products. The program would establish Amazon as an intermediary in the increasing dispute over how AI developers access, license and pay for digital content, the report added. "Publishers increasingly favor usage-based compensation models that scale with how often AI systems rely on their content, rather than flat licensing fees," PYMNTS wrote at the time. "Industry executives say such models could offer a more sustainable revenue stream as artificial intelligence usage grows, but many also worry that AI companies may not participate in sufficient numbers to make marketplaces economically meaningful."

A Marketplace for AI Training Data - Is Amazon Planning One for Publishers?

Given the lawsuits that companies in the US has brought against AI giants like OpenAI and others, this is an idea which merits a second loo Ever since the data-hungry AI ecosystem gained momentum since 2023, a string of copyright cases have emerged against these large companies hungry for current data to train their foundational models. Now, Amazon is reportedly considering a solution to overcome this messy affair by launching a marketplace for publishers. A report published by The Information claimed that Amazon teams have been meeting executives from several publishing houses and helping them get an understanding of what the marketplace is about. The basic idea is to provide companies with legally safe resources for training AI data and a place where buyers and sellers can negotiate. So, those seeking data can approach those selling it and directly license their content. The report said Amazon has already shared some slides with prospective customers ahead of the upcoming AWS conference. The idea in itself makes sense, given all the talk about content independence flagged by Cloudfare and propagated by the publications into blocking the AI bots. In fact, something like this could be a great initiative in India, especially for the hundreds of smaller publications who need to worry about the "zero click" future who may block these bots and run the risk of losing discoverability in the process. While conglomerates can afford to wall themselves off and wait for a payout, the vast majority of Indian publishers are walking into a trap. By blocking the bots, they risk invisibility. By letting them in, they risk obsolescence. Unlike their Western counterparts, they lack the leverage to demand a third option. Also Read: Why India's Content Independence Day is a Trap for Small Publishers In fact, in an earlier article, we had argued that until publishers own the reader relationship through email, identity, and habit, blocking bots can only be symbolic resistance, and not strategy. Coming back to what Amazon is up to, several published reports said they reached out to Amazon officials who neither denied nor confirmed the idea. In one of the publications, we came across a direct quote attributed to an Amazon spokesperson which went somewhat like this: "Amazon has built long-lasting, innovative relationships with publishers across many areas of our business, including AWS, Retail, Advertising, AGI, and Alexa. We are always innovating together to best serve our customers, but we have nothing specific to share on this subject at this time." What does one make of that? Quite obviously that there is no smoke without fire. It is a typical non-answer that the media management executives of big brands dish out when caught in a bind over what to share and what not to. Being a listed company, the regulations call for disclosure to the stock exchanges before making a public announcement around a new business venture. So, yes what Amazon is doing by remaining silent is understandable. But, there could be more to it than mere regulatory requirements. This isn't a new idea by any means as Microsoft had launched the Publisher Content Marketplace barely a week ago through a blog post which flew largely under the radar. The post claimed that the idea would create a new revenue stream for publishers while giving AI systems access to premium content and that too at scale. Microsoft said the publishers will be paid on delivered value, and AI builders gain scalable access to licensed premium content that improves their products. "PCM will support publishers of all sizes, from large national and international organizations to specialized and independent voices. Participation is voluntary, with transparent usage reporting, and publisher-defined licensing terms. And, publishers always retain ownership of their content and editorial independence. All of this is intended to scale to avoid the challenge of pairwise agreement between every producer and every AI builder and agent," the post said. Given the number of lawsuits that the AI industry has faced over the past two to three years, this move is a natural step in the right direction. In the past couple of years, companies have sought to resolve legal issues around copyright through signing individual deals with major news outlets and other organisations. Quite obviously these efforts haven't been enough to step the legal fallout. A report published by the Columbia Journalism Review (read it here) noted that more lawsuits were filed against OpenAI and Microsoft in December. "The vast majority of news publishers do not have the means to enter either formal deals or lawsuits, but the effects of the actions being taken by those that do are likely to trickle down and affect everyone's ability to be compensated for use of their work," it says in a post. If things are as bad as they claim in the US, imagine how much worse it can be in India? The math itself is brutal. While top publishers in the US derive between 30 to 40% traffic from direct or loyal channels, that number in India struggles to cross 20% which means the top of the funnel is what gets the booty. These numbers coming from accidental traffic from search and social media feeds cannot sustain a publication. With AI summaries further casting a shadow on traditional click-based serving of ads business, a marketplace for publishers could just be what can provide a short-term boost to smaller publications in India. Maybe, Amazon can pilot the program in India and then take it to the rest of the world.

Amazon Considers AI Content Marketplace for Publishers | PYMNTS.com

The initiative would position Amazon as an intermediary in the intensifying dispute over how AI developers access, license and pay for digital content. The proposed marketplace comes as publishers push back against the growing use of their articles, images and archives by generative AI systems. Media companies argue that AI chatbots and AI-powered search summaries are reducing traffic to their websites, weakening advertising revenue and undermining long-standing distribution models built around search and referrals. Amazon Web Services has previewed the idea to publishers ahead of an AWS-hosted event in New York, per the report. Slides circulated ahead of the conference reference a content marketplace alongside core AWS AI offerings, including its Bedrock platform and productivity tools used by enterprise customers, according to The Information. If launched, the marketplace would place Amazon in more direct competition with Microsoft, which rolled out its own AI content licensing marketplace last week. Microsoft said it has been testing the model by using licensed publisher content in both business and consumer versions of its artificial intelligence assistant Copilot before opening the platform more broadly to buyers. So far, Yahoo is the only publicly named content buyer on Microsoft's marketplace. Publishers increasingly favor usage-based compensation models that scale with how often AI systems rely on their content, rather than flat licensing fees. Industry executives say such models could offer a more sustainable revenue stream as artificial intelligence usage grows, but many also worry that AI companies may not participate in sufficient numbers to make marketplaces economically meaningful. Amazon has already entered into direct licensing agreements with select publishers. The company is reportedly paying more than $20 million per year to The New York Times to use its content for training AI models and powering features in Alexa. Last week, Amazon also launched a free web-based version of its Alexa+ assistant, which incorporates content from more than 200 media outlets, including major newspapers and magazines. Publishers are simultaneously turning to technical controls to limit unauthorized AI access. Infrastructure providers such as Cloudflare and Akamai have introduced tools that allow publishers to block AI crawlers or charge for access, while AWS offers similar capabilities through CloudFront. Even so, publishers say enforcement remains difficult, as some AI bots disguise their activity to resemble human traffic.

Amazon discusses AI content marketplace with publishers, The Information reports

Feb 9 (Reuters) - Amazon has signaled to publishing industry executives that it is planning to launch a marketplace where publishers can sell their content to firms offering artificial intelligence products, The Information reported on Monday. Ahead of an Amazon Web Services conference on Tuesday, AWS has circulated slides that mention a content marketplace, the report said, citing two people who spoke with Amazon about the project. The slides show AWS grouping the marketplace with its core AI tools, including Bedrock and Quick Suite, when describing products publishers can use in their businesses, the report added. The report comes as publishers and AI companies negotiate over the rules for using online content, whether to train models or to generate answers for users, with publishers pressing for usage-based fees that rise with how much their content is used. Amazon did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment. Last week, Microsoft said it is working on a Publisher Content Marketplace (PCM), an AI licensing hub that shows usage terms set by publishers. (Reporting by Juby Babu in Mexico City; Editing by Rashmi Aich)