Anthropic Signs Its First Content Licensing Deal, With the Associated Press

The agreement was struck shortly before the US midterm elections, according to Adweek. On election night, Claude answered users' requests for updates with up-to-the-minute results information attributed to the AP. Financial terms and the length of the deal were not disclosed. Anthropic did not respond to Adweek's request for comment, and the AP did not comment on the record.

The deal is a change for a company that has held out on paying publishers. OpenAI has signed more than a dozen content licensing agreements, while Anthropic had none. In August, digital media executives told Adweek that Anthropic believed its use of publisher content was allowed under fair use and showed no plans to license it. At the time Anthropic said its data partnerships were focused on its enterprise and developer products.

That stance has a cost in a product that answers questions about current events. Many premium publishers block Anthropic's web crawlers, which leaves Claude relying more on openly available and often less reliable sources. Real-time election results are a clear case where a licensed feed from a trusted provider matters.

The AP is also an unusual partner. Most of its revenue comes from licensing its reporting and data to other organisations, and it was the first publisher to sign licensing agreements with both Google and OpenAI. Adweek said the deal does not show that Anthropic has changed its overall approach, and that the company is likely to use the results to decide whether to sign more.

Anthropic is preparing to go public within weeks. Its relationship with publishers remains contested in court: on Wednesday a judge allowed music publishers to refile claims against chief executive Dario Amodei in their lawsuit over song lyrics, and the company agreed earlier this year to a $1.5 billion settlement with authors over pirated books used to train Claude.