The New York Times has sued both OpenAI and Microsoft, alleging copyright infringement of its news content.
The NYT said it is the first major US media organisation to sue OpenAI, the creator of the popular AI chatbot ChatGPT. The lawsuit, filed in the federal district court in Manhattan, alleges that millions of NYT articles were used to train chatbots that now compete with the news organisation.
The lawsuit comes as content owners including publishers, artists, authors etc have begun legal action against firms offering popular AI tools for alleged copyright infringement.
The NYT lawsuit does not include an exact monetary demand, but it is seeking a lot of money as compensation.
The lawsuit also calls for the companies to destroy any chatbot models and training data that use copyrighted material from The New York Times.
The NYT lawsuit cited several instances in which OpenAI and Microsoft chatbots gave users near-verbatim excerpts of its articles.
Microsoft however reportedly declined to comment on the case.
It should be noted that the lawsuit from the New York Times is not the first time that legal action has been levelled at the firms behind popular AI systems.
Multiple book authors including David Baldacci, Jonathan Franzen, John Grisham and Scott Turow, have sued OpenAI, alleging that AI systems might have co-opted tens of thousands of their books.
In July, the comedian Sarah Silverman and other authors sued OpenAI and Meta Platforms.
Photo library giant Getty Image has sued an AI company that generates images based on written prompts, alleging the platform relies on unauthorised use of Getty's copyrighted visual materials.
In July a Washington, DC judge ruled that artwork created by an artificial intelligence without human input cannot be copyrighted under US law.
Some news organisations however have reached agreements with AI firms.
In July the Associated Press struck a licensing deal with OpenAI, and then in this month German publishing giant Axel Springer also reached an agreement for an undisclosed amount.
This Cyber News was published on www.silicon.co.uk. Publication date: Thu, 28 Dec 2023 11:43:04 +0000