ProRata.ai, a US artificial intelligence start-up aiming to bring greater fairness in how media groups are paid for content, has agreed licensing deals with publishers including Daily Mail-owner DMG Media, the Guardian and Sky News. As part of the deal, which is set to be announced on Wednesday, DMG Media will acquire a stake in ProRata in a funding round that people familiar with the situation said would value the group, which was founded in January, at about $130mn. Nicholas Thompson, chief executive of The Atlantic magazine, another partner to ProRata, will also join the board of directors of the LA-based start-up. ProRata, which is launching its AI-powered search engine next month, is offering a unique model to media companies in publishing, music and video that aims to pay fairly for the usage of their content. It has developed technology that pays publishers per use of their content in generating AI answers and searches. The group will share half the revenue from subscriptions to its platform with its licensing partners, which already include Universal Music, Axel Springer, Financial Times, The Atlantic and Fortune. The model aims to address the concerns in the media industry over AI start-ups stealing their content to train and provide up-to-date responses to users.

Full report : ProRata, which plans to debut an AI search engine in December, inks licensing deals with DMG and others; sources: DMG bought a stake valuing ProRata at ~$130 million.