OpenAI, Perplexity Bet on Publishers to Stay Relevant

Over the last twenty-four hours, both Perplexity and OpenAI have announced new deals with popular online publishers to license their content into these AI systems. 

The bigger news of the two comes from the former, and Perplexity announced a whopping fifteen publishers - namely ADWEEK, Blavity, DPReview, Gear Patrol, The Independent, Lee Enterprises, Los Angeles Times, MediaLab, Mexico News Daily, Minkabu Infonoid, NewsPicks, Prisa Media, RTL Germany brands stern and ntv, and World History Encyclopedia.

This is in addition to their earlier list of partners when they launched the Perplexity Publishers’ Program. The first set of partners includes TIME, Der Spiegel, Fortune, Entrepreneur, The Texas Tribune, and WordPress.com.

The program enables Perplexity to share the revenue generated from advertising to these publishers. “They’ll also have access to our APIs and developer support to build unique features using our proprietary search technology. They will receive free Perplexity Enterprise Pro for their entire organisation for a year,” read the announcement. 

The program was launched and is being expanded in lieu of fostering a good relationship with the media industry, which otherwise has been turbulent throughout the year. Earlier this year, News Corp, New York Times, Forbes, and Wired had some sort of accusations to make against the AI search engine startup. 

That said, Perplexity isn’t the only one moving forward along these lines. OpenAI has also announced that they’re expanding their publisher partnership program with Future, and their 200-plus brands. Notable properties include PC Gamer, TechRadar, Tom’s Guide and The Week. 

“This partnership enables us to enhance the ChatGPT experience by providing more access to engaging, up-to-date and reliable information from a range of specialist sources,” said Brad Lightcap, COO, of OpenAI.

Over the last few months, OpenAI has also partnered with notable names like Conde Nest, which include brands like Vogue, The New Yorker, Wired, etc. Other publishers include Associated Press, Springer, The Atlantic, Vox Media and more. 

“With the introduction of our SearchGPT prototype⁠, we’re testing new search features that make finding information and reliable content sources faster and more intuitive,” read an announcement from OpenAI earlier this year. 

With the launch of SearchGPT, the war between Perplexity and OpenAI is getting heated. There is a clear divide among publishers, and it will be interestigng to see which among the two the next big publication is going to pick. Moreover, OpenAI is also set to eat up Perplexity’s moat. OpenAI is also exploring the possibility of integrating advertisements inside the platform, much against Sam Altman’s will.