US Newspapers Take Legal Action Against OpenAI For Copyright Infringement Over AI Training
The lawsuit also raises concerns about the accuracy of information disseminated by AI chatbots. Instances cited include ChatGPT recommending a recalled infant lounger linked to infant deaths.
A consortium of prominent US newspapers, led by the New York Daily News and Chicago Tribune, has launched a lawsuit against Microsoft and OpenAI in a New York federal court. The lawsuit alleges that the tech giants have unlawfully utilized reporters' work to train their generative artificial intelligence systems, sparking a legal battle over copyright infringement.
The lawsuit, brought by eight newspapers owned by investment firm Alden Global Capital's MediaNews Group, accuses the companies of unlawfully copying millions of articles to train AI products, such as Microsoft's Copilot and OpenAI's ChatGPT.
The complaint accuses OpenAI and Microsoft of copyright infringement, unfair competition through misappropriation, and trademark dilution. The newspapers argue that the AI chatbots reproduce entire articles, even those behind paywalls, without adequately attributing or linking back to the original source. This practice, they assert, undermines the publishers' revenue streams from subscriptions and content licensing.
Frank Pine, the executive editor overseeing Alden's newspapers, expressed firm opposition, stating, "We've spent billions of dollars gathering information and reporting news at our publications, and we can't allow OpenAI and Microsoft to expand the Big Tech playbook of stealing our work to build their own businesses at our expense."
The lawsuit, brought by eight newspapers owned by investment firm Alden Global Capital's MediaNews Group, accuses the companies of unlawfully copying millions of articles to train AI products, such as Microsoft's Copilot and OpenAI's ChatGPT.
The newspapers seek unspecified monetary damages and an injunction to halt further copyright infringement. The outcome of this legal battle could have implications for the use of copyrighted content in AI training and the relationship between tech companies and news organizations.
