In a bold move that reflects the evolving relationship between journalism and artificial intelligence, The New York Times Company has entered into a licensing agreement with Amazon to share its editorial content for AI applications.
This marks the first time the media giant has agreed to a deal specifically designed to support generative AI technology.
The partnership gives Amazon access to a wide range of content from The Times, including its daily news reporting, curated recipes from NYT Cooking, and premium sports coverage from The Athletic.
According to both companies, this content will be used to enhance Amazon’s customer-facing services and to train its proprietary artificial intelligence models.
This development follows a very different stance taken by The Times in 2023, when it sued OpenAI and Microsoft for allegedly using millions of its articles to train AI models without permission or compensation.
The lawsuit remains ongoing, but this latest agreement signals a more collaborative path forward with Amazon.
While financial terms have not been disclosed, the arrangement stands as a high-profile example of how publishers may choose partnership over conflict in the age of AI.
Meredith Kopit Levien, CEO of The New York Times, described the deal as aligned with the publication’s values.
She told staff that the agreement supports their principle that high-quality journalism should be compensated and that it reflects a strategic approach to protecting and monetizing their intellectual property.
Amazon has indicated that The Times’s content may be featured across a variety of platforms.
This could include integration with Alexa-enabled devices and support for voice-based news summaries, as well as inclusion in the datasets powering Amazon’s AI systems.
The deal has broad implications for the future of media and technology. As more tech companies seek access to authoritative content for AI training, traditional media outlets are faced with a choice.
They can either push back through legal avenues or negotiate licensing agreements that give them more control over how their work is used.
The Times’s decision to strike a deal with Amazon suggests a growing recognition that strategic partnerships may offer a more sustainable path forward.
It also reinforces the idea that journalism still holds critical value in the digital ecosystem, especially as AI tools continue to rely on high-quality, factual information to function effectively.
This is an evolving story, and further details are expected in the coming weeks.