Stack Overflow Will Charge AI Giants for Training Data

Developing the AI systems behind tools such as ChatGPT and the image generator Dall-E costs hundreds of millions of dollars—and it’s about to get more expensive. But Stack Overflow, a popular internet forum for computer programming help, plans to begin charging large AI developers as soon as the middle of this year for access to the 50 million questions and answers on its service, CEO Prashanth Chandrasekar says. Stack Overflow’s decision to seek compensation from companies tapping its data, part of a broader generative AI strategy, has not been previously reported. Meta, Google, and OpenAI—maker of ChatGPT—all have developed AI systems using data sets that culled content from thousands of online sources, including Stack Overflow and Reddit, according to outside analyses and their own disclosures. “Community platforms that fuel LLMs absolutely should be compensated for their contributions so that companies like us can reinvest back into our communities to continue to make them thrive,” Stack Overflow’s Chandrasekar says.