OpenAI is offering $1 million to $5 million a year deals to publishers for data that it has mostly already scraped. While these deals may give the company access to APIs for more up-to-the-moment queries, the payments are more of a way to ensure that publishers don't sue OpenAI for the stuff it has already scraped. A lawsuit would be much more expensive for OpenAI. Its current lawsuit with The New York Times may end up costing it at least $7.5 billion in statutory damages alone.