OpenAI Plans to Take a Cut of Customers’ AI-Aided Discoveries

Hi! If you’re finding value in our Applied AI newsletter, I encourage you to consider subscribing to The Information. It contains exclusive reporting on the most important stories in tech, like this story from Aaron and Wayne on Apple software chief Craig Federighi‘s cautious approach to improving the company’s AI standing. Save up to $250 on your first year of access.

Even as OpenAI begins a herculean effort to generate billions of dollars in chatbot ad revenue in the coming years, CFO Sarah Friar is already discussing its next business opportunity: “value sharing.”

Speaking at a panel at Davos moderated by The Information CEO Jessica Lessin, Friar suggested that in the field of drug discovery, her company could, for instance, take a “license to the drug that is discovered” using OpenAI’s technology. In other words, OpenAI would take a profit-sharing stake in the financial upside its AI creates for customers.