The New York Times is pursuing partners to test a new ad-targeting tool which will use generative artificial intelligence, Axios reported Tuesday.
The Times will be testing the tool internally beginning next quarter, with plans to make it widely available to advertisers in the second half of 2024.
The technology will recommend where an ad campaign would see greater success based on the messaging of the advertisement. The tool will also be utilized to hone in on niche audiences that were not yet entirely identifiable.
The Times has been working on this technology development long before filing a blockbuster lawsuit against OpenAI and Microsoft over copyright infringement of content to train chatbots.
The tool will launch in a closed beta test and the Times is currently recruiting advertising partners to participate in the experiment, which will likely begin in the second quarter of 2024.
This comes as publishers are starting to experiment with how AI technology can improve aspects of the media industry, including ad placement and journalistic research.
In December, the Times hired Quartz co-founder Zach Seward as an editorial director of artificial intelligence initiatives for the publication. Seward was tasked with creating a team to experiment with AI tools and creating training programs for journalists.
The New York Times filed an ambitious lawsuit in December against Microsoft and OpenAI, accusing the tech giants of copyright infringement. The suit argues that the generative A.I. tools that Microsoft and OpenAI have created rely on large language models, or LLM, “that were built by copying and using millions of The Times’s copyrighted news articles, in-depth investigations, opinion pieces, reviews, how-to guides and more.”
