Week In Review – UK Publishers Sign Up With AI Revenue Sharing Startup, Amazon Doubles Investment In Anthropic

In this week’s Week in Review: Amazon doubles its investment in AI startup Anthropic, publishers sign on to Prorata’s “ethical” revenue sharing model for generative AI and financial details of OpenAI’s licensing deal with Dotdash Meredith emerge. 

Tech

Perplexity Launches AI-Powered Shopping Tool as Google Rivalry Intensifies

AI search startup Perplexity debuted a new shopping feature that would allow users to buy products without leaving its search engine. The Google challenger said Pro subscribers can checkout “seamlessly” using the “Buy with Pro” feature on its website or app and get free shipping to boot. 

“Shopping online just got 10x more easy and fun,” the startup said, describing the feature as the “first-of-its kind AI commerce experience.” The move will narrow the gap between Perplexity, which is backed by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and chip giant NVIDIA, and incumbent search engines like Google, which have historically performed much better in areas like online shopping than AI upstarts. 

Apple Reportedly Revamping Siri In Race To Catch Up With AI Rivals

Apple is hurrying to revamp its digital assistant Siri in its mission to catch up with the AI assistants of rivals like Google and Microsoft, Bloomberg reported, citing people with knowledge of the matter. The assistant will reportedly leverage Apple’s AI models to provide a more conversational experience and undertake more sophisticated tasks. Apple is expected to formally announce the plans next year and release the new system in early 2026. 

Apple has lagged behind other tech giants in the race to develop and deploy generative AI. While the iPhone maker debuted its hotly anticipated AI product, Apple Intelligence, in October, it is still some way from rival products like ChatGPT and Gemini. 

Law, Regulation and Policy

UK Competition Watchdog Greenlights Google’s $2 Billion Investment In Anthropic

Britain’s antitrust watchdog cleared Google’s partnership and investment in AI startup Anthropic. The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said Google parent Alphabet had not gained “material influence” over Anthropic after the tech giant pledged to invest an additional $2 billion into the startup last year, adding to a large cloud computing contract and previous $300 million investment. Anthropic is best known for its AI chatbot Claude, a direct and serious competitor to Google’s Gemini. 

OpenAI And Microsoft Insist New York Times Prove Harms of AI Scraping In Legal Battle As ChatGPT Maker Deletes Potential Evidence

OpenAI and Microsoft have asked the New York Times to prove its assertion its news business has suffered as a result of their using copyrighted content to train their AI models, according to court documents. 

The tech companies claim commercial specifics such as advertising revenue and subscription cancellations are necessary to determine whether using copyrighted material as training data counts as fair use or not, a cornerstone of their legal strategy defending against the publisher’s lawsuit. “It is not sufficient for the Times to claim it suffered some revenue loss,” the letters said. 

Separately, lawyers for the Times said OpenAI had “irretrievably” deleted a trove of training data used to build the AI models. This includes potential evidence in the case, the legal letter said, stressing that there was “no reason to believe (the erasure) was intentional.”

Media

OpenAI Reportedly Paying Dotdash Meredith At Least $16 Million Annually In Content Deal

ChatGPT maker OpenAI is paying Dotdash Meredith at least $16 million a year ot license its content, Adweek reported. The figure, based on comments in a recent earnings call in public financial documents from Dotdash Meredith parent company IAC, adds crucial financial detail to the widely reported partnership. 

The figure gives a rare insight into how tech companies training and running AI models are valuing content from publishers. While many deals between AI and publishing giants like Google, Axel Springer and Condé Nast have been announced, few companies have revealed financial details of the deals.

Revenue Sharing AI Startup Prorata Signs Major UK Publishers 

Major UK media companies including DMG Media, the Guardian Media Group and Sky News have signed on to support revenue-sharing AI startup Prorata.ai as it works to build a fairer and more transparent way of compensating creators and publishers whose content is used by generative AI.  

The deal values the startup at around $130 million, according to the Financial Times. Other media partners announced in the UK and Ireland include Reach PLC, Mediahuis, Mumsnet, Prospect, Hello! and Exponential View, adding to existing deals with The Atlantic, Universal Music Group, Time, Fortune, Axel Springer and a number of authors.  

Despite the enthusiasm for its per-share compensation model, Prorata has yet to launch a public product. Its AI-powered search engine is expected to launch some time next month. 

Number of the Week

$4 billion. That’s how much Amazon said it invested in AI startup Anthropic on Friday. The sum doubles the tech giant’s total investment in the San Francisco-based firm to $8 billion. Anthropic said Amazon Web Services (AWS) will also become Anthropic’s “primary cloud and training partner” and that Amazon will retain its position as a minority investor.

Quote of the Week

Acclaimed British nature presenter Sir David Attenborough hit out against AI voice cloning after the BBC unearthed imitations of his voice online. “Having spent a lifetime trying to speak what I believe to be the truth, I am profoundly disturbed to find these days my identity is being stolen by others and greatly object to them using it to say whatever they wish,” he told the broadcaster.

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