👉 Background: The New York Times is an American daily newspaper that was founded back in 1851. Since then, it has become the most-read newspaper in the whole wide world with more than 11 million subscribers. We’d be talking latest news, opinion pieces, games like Wordle and podcasts like The Daily.

‍👉 What happened: Back in December 2023, the New York Times sued OpenAI and Microsoft for copyright infringement. It alleged that OpenAI was using NYT stories to train its chatbots, which was stealing billions of dollars worth of work by journalists. This was a major lawsuit, taking a stand for traditional media.

‍👉 What else: But now, the same New York Times has given its editors and staff the all-clear to use its new AI tool “Echo”. Staff are allowed to use AI to develop editorial ideas, brainstorm interview questions or help with research.

What's the key learning?

💡If you can’t beat them, sue them… and join them. Media companies are stuck in a love-hate relationship with AI.

💡 On the one hand, from a business perspective, they understand the value of AI: it can help with ideation of articles, research and even summarising long interviews. But, on the other hand, the New York Times has built its empire on quality and integrity. And is it possible maintain that quality and intergrity while giving AI a key to the newsroom?

💡We know that a number of other media outlets have already made deals with AI companies. For example, NewsCorp has encouraged its staff to use AI and even has AI journalists producing more than 3,000 articles a week in its local papers. So, time will tell whether New York Times will lean further into AI while suing OpenAI for everything they’ve got.