OpenAI has announced a partnership with German media and technology firm Axel Springer. The deal will see “real-time” information from Politico, Business Insider, BILD, Welt, and more fed into ChatGPT to aid in timely answers to events as they happen. Was Axel Springer the right choice? The internet has its thoughts.
What is Axel Springer?
Axel Springer SE is a German multinational media corporation founded by Axel Cäsar Springer in 1946. The firm is a parent company for several media brands, including Insider, Business Insider, Bild (including Auto Bild, Sport Bild, Audio Video Foto Bild, and Computer Bild), Politico, Upday, Protocol, Fakt, Musikexpress, and the German edition of Rolling Stone magazine.
Why did OpenAI partner with AxelSpringer for its “real-time” news?
The initial response to this news has been one of disappointment and distrust. One X user referred to the list as that of Germany’s “biggest fake news machines” and another was curious if the partnership is a “bad joke”. X user @AIBuzzNews claimed that AxelSpringer “is responsible for all the fake news happening in Germany and for society drifting to the political right.”
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The German Press Council has sanctioned BILD over 200 times, and according to Foreign Policy, 26 of those reprimands were in 2021 alone. This is the same Foreign Policy magazine that claims that BILD parent company, “Axel Springer, has a decades-long record of bending journalistic ethics for right-wing causes”. With BILD being reprimanded by the Deutscher Presserat (German Press) watchdog more than any other news publication, people are curious as to why OpenAI would choose it when they have their choice of any source on the planet.
An almost unanimous chorus of disappointed comments on the announcement, at least 13 of the top 50 referencing hate speech and misinformation, paint a picture of many users canceling their ChatGPT Plus subscriptions. At the same time, OpenAI is reopening its floodgates for new subscriptions, having paused all new paid signups for the past month. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman reassures users that the firm has plenty of new GPUs to keep up with demand, and based on the response to today’s news, it will have plenty of previously occupied bandwidth to spare.
Thankfully, “ChatGPT’s answers to user queries will include attribution and links to full articles for transparency and further information.”
