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

The AI ​​industry’s quest for licensable content has been a messy affair, filled with lawsuits and accusations of copyright infringement. Now, as tech companies search 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 e-commerce giant was meeting with publishing executives and alerting them to its plans to launch such a marketplace, The Information reported on Monday. Ahead of Tuesday’s AWS Publisher Conference, Amazon wrote “Slides Pointing to Content Marketplace.”

An Amazon spokesperson, reached by TechCrunch, didn’t deny the story but didn’t directly address the potential market either, saying only: “Amazon has built innovative, long-standing relationships with publishers across many of our business areas, including AWS, retail, advertising, AGI, and Alexa. We’re always innovating together to better serve our customers, but we don’t have anything specific to share on this topic at this time.”

Amazon wouldn’t be the first major tech company to go this route. Microsoft recently launched what it calls the Publisher Content Marketplace (PCM), which it says will give publishers a “new revenue stream” while also providing AI systems with “broad access to premium content.” Microsoft added that PCM is 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 murky problem of how copyrighted material gets into AI training data by striking deals with major news outlets and media organizations. For example, OpenAI has already signed content licensing partnerships with the Associated Press, Vox Media, News Corp, The Atlantic, and others.

These efforts were not enough to stop the legal repercussions. The conflict over copyrighted material in AI algorithms has led to a wave of lawsuits, and the case is still being considered by the judicial system. New regulatory strategies to deal with this issue are being proposed all the time.

Media publishers have also expressed concern about the ways in which AI summaries — especially those that Google shows in search results — might reduce traffic to their sites. One recent study claimed that such summaries had a “devastating” effect on the number of users clicking on websites. Information report suggests publishers may view new marketplace-based content syndication system as a ‘more sustainable business’ [than current, more limited licensing partnerships] “This will increase revenues” as the use of AI continues to escalate.