The New York Times has filed a lawsuit against OpenAI and Microsoft, alleging copyright infringement, to stop the businesses from utilizing its content to train chatbots.
On Wednesday, the newspaper initiated legal proceedings in the United States federal court in Manhattan, claiming that the companies' influential artificial intelligence (AI) models unlawfully utilized millions of its articles for training purposes without authorization. The newspaper further asserted that the copyright violations within its publication could amount to billions of dollars.
According to the Times, OpenAI and Microsoft are improving their technology by "illegally using The Times' work to create artificial intelligence products that compete with it," which "threatens The Times's ability to provide that service."
The complaint alleges that the firms want to exploit The Times's substantial investment in journalism by utilizing it to develop substitute goods without obtaining permission or making any payment.
The Times, a highly esteemed journalistic organization in the United States, is pursuing compensation and a court order to cease the use of its material by the corporations in question and delete any data that has already been collected.
Although an exact amount is not mentioned, the Times said the violation may have resulted in "billions of dollars in statutory and actual damages."
The New York Times adopted a more combative stance towards the unexpected emergence of AI chatbots by filing a lawsuit, unlike other media organizations like Germany's Axel Springer or The Associated Press, who have instead entered into content agreements with OpenAI.
Microsoft, the second largest firm in the world based on market capitalization, made significant investments in OpenAI and promptly integrated the capabilities of artificial intelligence into its products following the launch of ChatGPT in the previous year.
The AI models that drive ChatGPT and Microsoft's Copilot (formerly known as Bing) underwent extensive training using online material, assuming it was permissible to utilize without requiring remuneration.
However, the complaint contended that the illicit utilization of the Times's content to develop artificial intelligence products jeopardized its capacity to deliver high-caliber journalism.
"The tools were developed using independent journalism and content that is exclusively accessible due to our extensive reporting, editing, and fact-checking efforts," stated a representative from the Times.
In April, The Times they contacted Microsoft and OpenAI to express concerns over the utilization of its intellectual property and to seek a resolution to the matter.
During the negotiations, the newspaper stated that it wanted to "ensure it received fair value" for the use of its material, as well as "facilitate the continuation of a healthy news ecosystem and help develop GenAI technology in a responsible way that benefits society and supports a well-informed public."
The newspaper is part of an expanding roster of individuals and publications endeavoring to prevent AI giants from utilizing copyrighted information.
In June, over 4,000 writers penned a letter to the CEOs of OpenAI, Google, Microsoft, Meta, and other AI developers, alleging them of engaging in exploitative tactics while constructing chatbots that imitate and reproduce their language, style, and concepts.
Anthropic, an artificial intelligence business, has been sued by Universal and other music publishers in a US court. The lawsuit alleges that Anthropic used copyrighted lyrics to train its AI systems and create responses to user searches.
Getty Images has accused Stability AI of capitalizing on its photographs and those of its partners to develop visual artificial intelligence that generates unique images upon request.
In response to the increasing number of lawsuits, Microsoft and Google have declared their intention to offer legal safeguards to consumers who face litigation for copyright violation related to content produced by their artificial intelligence systems.
Recently, policymakers in the European Union reached a significant agreement on legislation that aims to regulate artificial intelligence (AI). This legislation mandates that tech companies operating in the EU must provide information about the data used to train their AI systems and conduct thorough testing of their products. This requirement is essential for products used in high-risk areas like self-driving vehicles and healthcare.
Game of Thrones author George RR Martin and other renowned fiction writers initiated a class-action lawsuit against OpenAI last year, alleging that the firm infringed upon their copyrights explicitly power ChatGPtoT.
In October, President Joe Biden of the United States issued an executive order specifically addressing the influence of artificial intelligence (AI) on national security and the issue of discrimination. In contrast, China has implemented rules that mandate AI systems to align with "socialist core values.".
Commentaires