Key Points
This spring, after Mumsnet discovered that AI companies were scraping its data, the company says it decided to try to strike licensing deals with some of the major players in the space, including OpenAI, which initially expressed willingness to explore an arrangement after Mumsnet first reached out..
According to Mumsnet, during those early conversations, an OpenAI strategic partnership lead told the company that datasets over 1 billion words were of interest to the AI giant..
When asked why, the OpenAI staffer characterized Mumsnets 6 billion word dataset as too small to warrant a licensing arrangement, Roberts says..
OpenAI has struck a variety of data-licensing deals with media outlets and platforms in the past year, entering into agreements with Vox Media, the Atlantic, Axel Springer, Time, and WIRED parent company Cond Nast, as well as platforms filled with user-generated content like Reddit..
She says that, based on comments she received after the announcement Mumsnet was looking into legal action, users by and large understand the companys aims in licensing their data..
