A new deal between ChatGPT’s parent company, OpenAI, and a biased leftist news outlet could potentially undercut local newspapers across the country.
The AI giant announced a new and expanded partnership with left-leaning outlet Axios to bring yet more leftist media to Americans under the premise of promoting objective “local” news. In exchange, Axios's leftist coverage will not only be available to OpenAI’s ChatGPT but will depend on OpenAI technology. This new initiative to build multiple OpenAI-equipped newsrooms appears to be an expansion of existing partnerships with multiple left-leaning news outlets, including The Associated Press, The Atlantic, WIRED, TIME, The Guardian and The Washington Post.
OpenAI proudly proclaimed in a press release that its goal is to build newsrooms that, it appears, will compete with local news in four cities: Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; Kansas City, Missouri; Boulder, Colorado; and Huntsville, Alabama. The partnership involves OpenAI bankrolling local newsrooms in exchange for Axios incorporating the AI company’s technology.
MRC Vice President for Free Speech Dan Schneider explained, “I have been talking with local news publishers for years about their struggles. They have been hammered by Big Tech companies which have siphoned away the great bulk of their revenues. At the worst possible time, it appears to me that AI is being used to put a dagger in the heart of local news.”
Schneider continued: “This is bad news for freedom, since a well-informed citizenry is necessary to maintain our democratic republic. Local newspapers are often the only reliable source of news for many Americans, but now OpenAI appears to be trying to replace that local news with a radical alternative. And that is on brand for this biased, Silicon Valley tech company with a political agenda.”
Axios’s partnership with OpenAI marks a significant new development and deepening of ties between leftist media and one of the largest artificial intelligence companies. The incorporation of AI into the news process is becoming increasingly standard. The key issue here, however, is OpenAI’s special alliance with—and acceptance of feedback from—Axios, yet another outlet that media bias ratings firm AllSides rates as “lean left.” Instead of creating a “healthy news ecosystem” as it claims, OpenAI’s insistence on taking feedback from biased news could further influence not only its products, but America’s local news ecosystem.
Axios is not the only leftist outlet to score a partnership with OpenAI. The AI company previously formed partnerships with Vox Media (rated “left” by AllSides), The Washington Post (rated “lean left”), Associated Press (rated “left”) and The Atlantic (rated “lean left”). Notably, while OpenAI in 2024 did license content from Fox News, its partnerships primarily involve more left-leaning than right-leaning American outlets.
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