The New York Times prohibits AI vendors from devouring its content

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In early August, The New York Times updated its terms of service (TOS) to prohibit scraping its articles and images for AI training, reports Adweek. The move comes at a time when tech companies have continued to monetize AI language apps such as ChatGPT and Google Bard, which gained their capabilities through massive unauthorized scrapes of Internet data.

The new terms prohibit the use of Times content—which includes articles, videos, images, and metadata—for training any AI model without express written permission. In Section 2.1 of the TOS, the NYT says that its content is for the reader's "personal, non-commercial use" and that non-commercial use does not include "the development of any software program, including, but not limited to, training a machine learning or artificial intelligence (AI) system."

Further down, in section 4.1, the terms say that without NYT's prior written consent, no one may "use the Content for the development of any software program, including, but not limited to, training a machine learning or artificial intelligence (AI) system."