The session had been billed as one of the most anticipated at the congress, and the shadow of the New York Times lawsuit, whose publisher, A.G. Sulzberger, had addressed the conference the previous day, hung over it throughout, even though both OpenAI speakers declined to discuss it directly.
Varun Shetty, Vice President of Media Partnerships at OpenAI, and Tom Rubin, the company’s Chief of Intellectual Property and Content, came to the congress with a coherent message: OpenAI is not a hostile actor towards publishers. It has invested in the relationship, is building responsibly, and wants credit for showing up in conversations that it implies other AI platforms are avoiding. Whether that message landed depends on how much weight you give to goodwill versus commercial terms.
The case for the defence
Shetty opened with a biography. Both he and Rubin have backgrounds in the news industry. Shetty spent time at the New York Times, and Rubin worked as a journalist before becoming a media lawy…
