NYT’s counsel Ian Crosby previously told Ars that OpenAI’s decision "to enter into deals with news publishers only confirms that they know their unauthorized use of copyrighted work is far from 'fair.'"
It means they know that they'll get harassed with lawsuits and are willing to spend some money to preemptively buy off potential litigants before it gets to that point. Whether that's "fair" is not really relevant to the realities of the legal system.