Think of any vaguely parenting topic you can imagine, and there’s probably a post about it on Mumsnet, the UK-based long-running, hugely popular, controversial parenting forum for mums. Over its two-decade-long history, Mumsnet has amassed an archive of more than six billion words written by its highly engaged user base, on topics such as dirty nappies and lazy husbands. (Not to mention silly dolphin talk.)
This spring, after Mumsnet discovered AI companies were draining its data, the company says it decided to try to strike licensing deals with some of the major players in the space, including OpenAI, which initially expressed a willingness to explore a deal after Mumsnet first reached outside. After negotiations with OpenAI failed, in July Mumsnet announced its intention to take legal action.
Roberts says she was “annoyed” by the development. She recalls that initially OpenAI seemed particularly interested in Mumsnet because of the platform’s content written mostly by women. “This is very high-quality conversational data,” she says. “The conversation is 90 percent female, which is quite unusual.”
