TIME did not publicly announce one three-way contract with OpenAI and ElevenLabs. On June 27, 2024, it announced a multi-year content and technology partnership with OpenAI and, separately, a collaboration with ElevenLabs for automated article audio. Those relationships became parts of a wider TIME AI strategy that also involves Scale AI.
What TIME announced on June 27, 2024
The public record describes two related but separate arrangements:
| Partner | What was announced | Primary capability |
|---|---|---|
| OpenAI | A multi-year content deal and strategic partnership | Access to current and historical TIME journalism, plus OpenAI technology for TIME products |
| ElevenLabs | A collaboration using Audio Native | Embeddable, automated voiceovers for selected TIME.com articles |
Nothing in the announcements establishes a single contract jointly signed by all three companies. TIME later described OpenAI and ElevenLabs as separate technology relationships within a broader generative-AI program.
What the OpenAI partnership covers
Content access and attribution
TIME said OpenAI would receive access to current and historic TIME content, including an archive described at the time as spanning 101 years. OpenAI said the material could enhance its products, including ChatGPT, and that responses using TIME content would include attribution and links to the original TIME.com source. See OpenAI’s announcement and TIME’s announcement.
#1 Best Overall
Technology for TIME products
The arrangement also gives TIME access to OpenAI technology while TIME supplies feedback and practical journalism use cases. That is a two-way product relationship, not only a license for an AI company to ingest articles.
What the announcement does not establish
The public statements do not disclose the payment, revenue share, exclusivity, retention or deletion rules, model-training restrictions, audit rights, or referral guarantees. They also do not say that every TIME article is available in every OpenAI product, that every answer about TIME will contain a link, or how much article text may appear in an answer.
Axios reported that the arrangement included archive access for training models and answering user questions. That is secondary reporting; the official announcements use the more general language of access to current and historical content to enhance products and display information.
Does this mean ChatGPT reproduces TIME articles?
Not necessarily. A content license, retrieval of source material, model training, summarization, and verbatim reproduction are different activities. The announcement supports the first two at a high level and promises attribution and links, but it does not publish the technical limits governing all four. A citation can help a reader check the source, yet it does not by itself guarantee that an AI answer preserves an article’s context or wording.
Do these 3 things before closing this tab:
1Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minute2Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errors3Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitchesWhat ElevenLabs contributes
Audio Native on selected articles
ElevenLabs said TIME adopted Audio Native, an embeddable player that generates automated voiceovers for selected TIME.com articles and blogs. The feature offers another way to consume reporting, particularly for readers who prefer listening or need an accessibility option.
What is—and is not—claimed about the voice
The announcement does not say that TIME cloned a particular journalist’s voice. ElevenLabs’ example used “Brian,” a voice from its library. “AI-generated voiceover” therefore should not be treated as evidence of a human narrator or a TIME staffer’s cloned voice.
How the relationships fit TIME AI
TIME’s later account presents TIME AI as a multi-vendor platform for interacting with its journalism. TIME identifies Scale AI as a major development partner, OpenAI as supporting functions such as chat and translation, and ElevenLabs as supporting conversational voice components. Saying that TIME AI is simply “powered by OpenAI” or that every TIME audio product uses ElevenLabs loses those distinctions.
Products that followed
TIME AI
TIME introduced TIME AI around its 2024 Person of the Year coverage, allowing users to interact with TIME-related material through generative-AI interfaces. It was an experiment in accessing journalism conversationally rather than only through article pages.
The Tool Desk
Outbyte PC Repair FREERepair Windows errors before they cause bigger problemsFix Now →Outbyte Driver Updater FREEFix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitchesFind Drivers →AI Audio Brief — June 2025
TIME’s AI Audio Brief uses editor-curated stories from The Brief newsletter and presents them as a discussion between two AI voices, Henry and Lucy. TIME says the source stories were previously published, the system was designed not to depart from those articles, and the output includes attribution. It also warns that the tool can make errors.
For this specific product, TIME credits OpenAI models for script generation and text-to-speech and says the voices were developed with Scale AI using OpenAI’s voice library. That account does not identify ElevenLabs as the technology behind the AI Audio Brief.
TIME AI Agent — November 2025
The TIME AI Agent debuted in November 2025 after earlier Person of the Year experiments. TIME says it can create experiences such as audio summaries, multilingual debates, and conversations grounded in TIME coverage.
AI-literacy partnership — December 11, 2025
On December 11, 2025, TIME and OpenAI announced a further partnership focused on global AI literacy. TIME framed it as an extension of the 2024 relationship, not a replacement for the original content deal.
Crashes, No Sound, or Screen Glitches?
Random freezes, missing sound and display glitches usually trace back to one bad driver. Find and replace yours safely.Free scan · under a minuteWindows Errors? Fix Them Before They Spread
Repair common Windows errors and clear accumulated junk for a smoother, more stable PC - no reinstall needed.Free scan · no reinstallTimeline
- June 27, 2024: TIME announces its OpenAI content partnership and its separate ElevenLabs Audio Native collaboration.
- Late 2024: TIME’s later account describes an early TIME AI experiment connected with Person of the Year coverage.
- June 2025: AI Audio Brief launches using selected The Brief stories.
- November 2025: TIME AI Agent debuts.
- December 11, 2025: TIME and OpenAI announce an AI-literacy initiative.
What readers should check when using these tools
- Source context: Open the linked TIME article rather than relying only on an AI summary.
- Accuracy: Generative systems can omit qualifications, misstate facts, or compress a complex report.
- Audio availability: ElevenLabs Audio Native was initially deployed on selected articles, not documented as a site-wide feature.
- Voice and pronunciation: Synthetic narration can introduce emphasis or pronunciation errors even when the underlying text is accurate.
- Archive versus current reporting: Historical TIME material may reflect the language and knowledge of its publication period; an AI interface does not remove that context.
What remains undisclosed
The public announcements reviewed do not specify the financial terms, exclusivity, exact training rights, content-retention rules, enforcement of attribution, editorial review requirements, traffic guarantees, or the contractual division of responsibilities among TIME, OpenAI, ElevenLabs, and Scale AI. Those omissions do not prove a problem; they mark the boundary of what can be stated confidently.
Bottom line
TIME’s 2024 announcement was a pair of partnerships, not a documented three-party deal. OpenAI received access to TIME journalism and supplied technology for products such as chat and translation; ElevenLabs supplied an automated article-audio capability through Audio Native. TIME’s later TIME AI, AI Audio Brief, AI Agent, and AI-literacy projects show a continuing strategy of distributing journalism through text, conversational interfaces, translation, and synthetic audio. The commercial terms and many technical safeguards remain private.
Quick Recap
Product prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on Amazon at the time of purchase will apply.
