Interesting, isn't it? I'm sure it has some legal or PR reason or something but IMHO the more important part is about acknowledging the problem: The current copyright system doesn't work and something is needed to compensate for the work.
The internet has shaken the system but the content producers were able to adapt, albeit resulting in lower quality content.
However with the raise of AI, the thing completely shattered. Previously, someone reading the content and telling it to others wasn't a problem that breaks the compensation scheme for content producers but with ChatGPT and similar we have a situation where this "person" can tall about it to literally everyone. Some new compensation scheme is needed and OpenAI is probably trying o act as the "nice guy" to prevent the urgent need of a scheme that might limit their ability to consume other people's content.
The internet has shaken the system but the content producers were able to adapt, albeit resulting in lower quality content.
However with the raise of AI, the thing completely shattered. Previously, someone reading the content and telling it to others wasn't a problem that breaks the compensation scheme for content producers but with ChatGPT and similar we have a situation where this "person" can tall about it to literally everyone. Some new compensation scheme is needed and OpenAI is probably trying o act as the "nice guy" to prevent the urgent need of a scheme that might limit their ability to consume other people's content.