SoftBank said on Wednesday it has begun operating GaranAI, a platform that will source articles from publishers—including Mainichi, Sankei, Kyodo and certain regional papers—pay contributors and convert content into data formats that make reconstruct

2026-07-22

SoftBank said on Wednesday it has begun operating GaranAI, a platform that will source articles from publishers—including Mainichi, Sankei, Kyodo and certain regional papers—pay contributors and convert content into data formats that make reconstruction of the original text difficult. The company will further process those datasets into AI-ready inputs and sell them to AI developers to improve generative-AI response accuracy. SoftBank released a trial version and is now accepting developer applications, plans iterative improvements over the next six months, aims to roll out a full version in or after January next year, and intends to expand the platform to accept a broader range of copyrighted content.