OpenAI Chief Operating Officer Brad Lightcap told Bloomberg on April 4 that the company has registered 600,000 individuals for ChatGPT Enterprise.
Lightcap described the growth as “tremendous momentum” and called 2024 “the year of adoption for AI in the enterprise.”
OpenAI has seen a 4x growth in its enterprise users from 150,000 in January, less than a year after the launch of ChatGPT Enterprise in August 2023.
Data protection vs. content licensing
Though ChatGPT Enterprise offers many features, it allows users to exclude enterprise data from OpenAI training — a feature also found in some versions of competing products like Microsoft Copilot.
The fact that AI companies offer enterprise clients a confidentiality feature reinforces widespread concerns around data access in light of alleged content access violations.
ChatGPT’s enterprise model also demonstrates that data privacy can coexist with licensed access to data. Lightcap commented on his efforts to secure licensing agreements between OpenAI and media companies, allowing the firm to use external data for training and in-app content.
OpenAI has several licensing deals of this type underway. Bloomberg’s latest coverage referred to recent licensing deals between OpenAI and media companies in France, Spain, and Germany. A separate Reuters report from January said the firm is in talks with US firms, including CNN, Fox, and Time. Lightcap said he “expect[s] a lot more” licensing activity from OpenAI going forward.
Lightcap called an ongoing lawsuit from the New York Times “without merit,” echoing OpenAI’s stance in January. The suit alleges that OpenAI infringed copyright by training its AI on New York Times news articles.
