Microsoft is developing a marketplace to compensate publishers for their content used by artificial intelligence. Axios reports that the company is in talks with several U.S. publishers about a pilot program. The project, called the Publisher Content Marketplace, would launch with Microsoft’s Copilot assistant. This move would make Microsoft the first major tech company to build such a system, creating a new business model for content providers in the AI era. According to publishing executives briefed on the matter, the media industry is eager for a large tech company to facilitate such a marketplace. Most AI firms currently pay publishers through upfront licensing deals, not based on usage. Similarweb data indicates Copilot’s traffic is considerably lower than that of competitors like ChatGPT.