Tech giant Microsoft (MSFT) is getting ready to launch a new marketplace that would let AI companies pay U.S. publishers for the content their products use, according to Axios. In fact, the pilot program will start with Microsoft’s Copilot chatbot, which will pay select publishers when their material appears in AI answers. If it works well, Microsoft plans to expand the program to include other AI tools. The company introduced the idea during a recent meeting with publishers, but hasn’t provided an official comment yet.
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It is worth noting that in the past, companies like Microsoft, OpenAI, and Anthropic made individual licensing deals with publishers to use their content for AI training. However, this new marketplace would work differently by giving publishers—such as book authors and news outlets—a steady way to earn money whenever their material is surfaced by chatbots. It would also provide AI developers with a clear and legal way to access content that publishers might have previously blocked from being scraped.
Unsurprisingly, this move comes after Microsoft faced pushback from some publishers. For example, the New York Times (NYT) sued both Microsoft and OpenAI after arguing that its intellectual property was taken without permission to train AI models. Nevertheless, Microsoft is trying to ease those tensions by offering publishers regular payments with this new marketplace, while also making sure that AI companies have reliable access to high-quality information.
Is MSFT Stock a Buy?
Turning to Wall Street, analysts have a Strong Buy consensus rating on MSFT stock based on 34 Buys and one Hold assigned in the last three months. In addition, the average MSFT price target of $625.78 per share implies 22.7% upside potential.
