Content Tokenization Could be the Next Biggest AI Trend – Here’s Why
Leading media organizations are increasingly signing licensing agreements with AI giants. For newspapers like The New York Times, such a deal safeguards their intellectual property and provides an additional revenue stream.
Meanwhile, companies like OpenAI and Amazon can train their models on accurate information and avoid lawsuits over copyright infringement. However, experts from IoTeX Network, O.XYZ, and AR.IO told BeInCrypto that existing decentralized alternatives could more transparently and equitably achieve the same results for content creators.
The New York Times’ New AI StrategyIn a move that drew considerable attention, The New York Times signed a deal with Amazon earlier this month, allowing Amazon to use its editorial content to train the tech company’s artificial intelligence (AI) models.
The licensing agreement between The New York Times and Amazon allows the tech company to use articles from the newspaper and its other publications. However, the newspaper’s public announcement about the deal did not reveal the financial terms.
Amazon and The New York Times Announce an A.I. Licensing Deal https://t.co/BPDtaxpliI
— Michael M. Grynbaum (@grynbaum) May 29, 2025This decision marks a public change in strategy for The New York Times, which had previously opposed large language models (LLMs) using its content without permission.
In January 2024, the newspaper sued OpenAI and Microsoft over copyright infringement. The New York Times claimed these companies used copyrighted articles to train their LLMs without permission or compensation. That lawsuit is still ongoing and has not yet reached an outcome.
The New York Times is not the first media organization to sue a technological company over unfair use of its intellectual property.
“In recent years, many big tech projects have encountered numerous legal challenges and fines. For example, Google has faced over €8 billion in fines from the EU in the past decade due to poor data practices,” Ahmad Shadid, CEO of O.XYZ., told BeInCrypto.
As the creators of leading LLMs need more widespread access to accurate information, such deals are becoming increasingly common.
The Rise of Licensing DealsLicensing deals are growing in popularity. Last year, OpenAI, led by Sam Altman, signed an agreement with the European multinational media company Axel Springer SE. The deal closely mirrored the one recently made between The New York Times and Amazon.
The agreement allows OpenAI to use articles from media organizations owned by Axel Springer, including Politico, Business Insider, and Morning Brew, among other top international publications.
Altman later signed similar agreements with the Financial Times, Vogue, and the parent companies of outlets like The New Yorker, Cosmopolitan, and Le Monde, to name a few. OpenAI agreed to backlink all relevant information to the original articles as part of these deals.
OpenAI's content licencing deals
Companies with proprietary content (