Penguin Random House parent company Bertelsmann has agreed to a “strategic collaboration” with OpenAI to use ChatGPT technology across many of its operating units. According to the announcement, the agreement not only includes employees’ use of ChatGPT, but the “development of new products and services” as well.
In a statement, Rolf Hellermann, CFO of Bertelsmann and chairman of its technoology and data advisory board, said that by collaborating with OpenAI, Bertelsmann hopes to realize AI’s “enormous potential to drive innovation, efficiency, and creativity in all parts of our company.” Working with different partners, Hellermann continued, “we will continue to support the work of our creative professionals through a targeted and responsible use of AI.”
In addition to using ChatGPT Enterprise to increase the efficiency in its daily work processes, “experts and creatives from [Bertelsmann's] content businesses will work with OpenAI to develop new ways of creating and distributing video, audio, and text content,” the announcement said. One example, cited by Bertelsmann, of how OpenAI technology could be used in marketing was creating “personalized book recommendations on social media at Penguin Random House.”
In the lead-up to its agreement with OpenAI, Bertelsmann recently set up an AI Hub to facilitate the use of synergies and create priorities across the corporation. Bertelsmann said that its goal “is to support the creative process in its content businesses with generative AI wherever possible, and to underscore its pioneering role in the use of new technologies together with OpenAI.”
