New York Times sues OpenAI and Microsoft for copyright infringement and demands damages for ‘unlawful use of valuable works’

The lawsuit alleged that “millions” of articles published by the New York Times were used without permission to make ChatGPT smarter, and claims the tool now competes with the newspaper as a trusted source of information.

Washington: The New York Times sued ChatGPT maker OpenAI and Microsoft in a US court on Wednesday, alleging the companies’ powerful AI models used millions of items for training without permission. The suit does not contain an exact money demand. But it said the defendants should be held responsible for “billions of dollars in statutory and actual damages” related to the “unlawful copying and use of The Times’ uniquely valuable works.”

The copyright infringement lawsuit, filed in a federal court in Manhattan, alleged that while the companies copied information from many sources to build their systems, they gave the content of the New York Times “particular emphasis” and “attempted to piggybacking on the Times’ massive investment in its journalism by using it to build replacement products without permission or payment.”

The lawsuit alleges that “millions” of articles published by the New York Times were used without permission to make ChatGPT smarter, and claims the tool now competes with the newspaper as a trusted source of information.

It is claimed that when asked about current events, ChatGPT will sometimes generate “verbatim excerpts” from New York Times articles, which cannot be accessed without paying for a subscription. It also appealed to the “vital” importance of the Times’ independent journalism to democracy, arguing that it is “increasingly rare and valuable”.

The “unlawful use” of the newspaper’s “copyrighted news articles, in-depth investigations, op-eds, reviews, guides and more” to create artificial intelligence products “threatens The Times’ ability to provide that service,” the lawsuit said. according to The guard.

Times negotiation with OpenAI and Microsoft

The Times said in its complaint that it objected when it discovered months ago that its work had been used to train the companies’ major language models. Starting in April, the Times said it started negotiate with OpenAI and Microsoft to receive fair compensation and determine the terms of an agreement.

But the Times claims it has been unable to reach a resolution with the companies. Microsoft and OpenAI claim that the Times’ works are considered “fair use,” which allows them to use copyrighted material for a “transformative purpose,” the complaint said, according to CNN.

The Times strongly objected to this claim, saying that ChatGPT and Microsoft’s Bing chatbot (aka “copilot”) can provide a similar service to the New York Times.

“There is nothing ‘transformative’ about using The Times’ content without payment to create products that take the place of The Times and take away from its audience,” the Times said in its complaint. “Because the results of Defendants’ GenAI models compete with and closely match the input used to train them, copying Times works for that purpose is not a fair use.”

The Times is the first major U.S. media organization to sue the companies, makers of ChatGPT and other popular AI platforms, over copyright issues related to its written works.