Yelp has licensed its database of 330 million reviews and 8 million business listings to OpenAI. The deal gives the AI company access to Yelp's local business data for use in ChatGPT's local recommendations feature.
A massive dataset for AI training
Yelp's platform holds one of the largest collections of user-generated reviews and structured business information. The 330 million reviews span years of customer feedback on everything from restaurants to auto repair shops. The 8 million listings include addresses, phone numbers, hours of operation, and other details. This combination of unstructured text and structured data is valuable for training AI models to understand local contexts and provide accurate recommendations.
How ChatGPT will use the data
OpenAI plans to integrate Yelp's data directly into ChatGPT's responses for local queries. When a user asks for a nearby coffee shop or a reliable plumber, the chatbot will draw on Yelp's reviews and listings to generate a recommendation. The goal is to make ChatGPT's local suggestions more reliable and up-to-date, moving beyond generic answers to specific, review-backed options.
The integration means ChatGPT will be able to answer questions like "Find a highly-rated Italian restaurant in downtown Austin" with real-time data from Yelp. The chatbot can also provide details such as business hours, contact information, and user ratings.
The business arrangement
The licensing agreement opens a new revenue stream for Yelp, which has long monetized its data through advertising and partnerships. For OpenAI, the deal provides a ready-made local business database without the need to build one from scratch. Financial terms were not disclosed, but the arrangement is a straightforward data-for-access deal between the two companies.
Yelp's data has been a go-to resource for consumers looking for local services. Now it will feed into one of the most widely used AI chatbots, potentially changing how people discover businesses in their area.
OpenAI will use the data to power local recommendations in ChatGPT. The company has not announced a specific rollout date, but the data is now available for integration.
