Eight US newspapers are suing OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT, and Microsoft, claiming that these tech companies have been "purloining millions" of copyrighted news articles to train their artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots without permission or payment.
US Newspapers Suing OpenAI, Microsoft Over Copyright Infringement
The New York Daily News, Chicago Tribune, Denver Post, and other papers initiated the lawsuit on Tuesday in a New York federal court. Frank Pine, the executive editor for the MediaNews Group and Tribune Publishing, emphasized the significance of protecting their work, saying they have invested billions of dollars in gathering information and reporting news at their publications. They cannot permit OpenAI and Microsoft to follow the trend of stealing their work to benefit their businesses.
The other newspapers involved in the lawsuit are all owned by Alden Global Capital, including MediaNews Group's Mercury News, Orange County Register, St. Paul Pioneer-Press, Tribune Publishing's Orlando Sentinel, and South Florida Sun Sentinel, who argue that the utilization of their content should occur with the publishers' consent and proper compensation.
The lawsuit also claims that OpenAI and Microsoft's AI systems not only reproduce news articles verbatim but also generate misleading or inaccurate articles falsely attributed to the publications, including a fabricated Denver Post article endorsing smoking as an asthma treatment and a fictitious Chicago Tribune recommendation for an infant lounger that was recalled due to safety concerns.
READ ALSO: OpenAI "Plays Safe" on Infringement Lawsuits, Partners with Dozens of Publishers to License Content
The ChatGPT-Maker's Response
On Tuesday, Microsoft chose not to provide a comment. OpenAI, on the other hand, stated in a release that it is committed to supporting news organizations. The statement mentioned that although they were not previously aware of Alden Global Capital's concerns, they are actively involved in productive partnerships and discussions with numerous news organizations worldwide to explore opportunities, address any concerns, and offer solutions in collaboration with these organizations.
The lawsuit is the most recent in a series of legal actions against OpenAI and Microsoft, now appearing in Manhattan's and San Francisco's federal court, where the companies are already engaged in multiple copyright lawsuits filed by media outlets, the New York Times, and other prominent authors such as John Grisham, Jodi Picoult, and George Martin.
Tech companies contend about the fair use of gathering large amounts of publicly available internet content to train their AI systems under the doctrine of American copyright law, and they even side-step potential legal disputes by compensating organizations for the use of such content in some cases.
The Associated Press partnered with OpenAI last year, wherein the technology company agreed to pay an undisclosed fee to license AP's archive of news stories. OpenAI has also struck licensing agreements with other media companies, including news publishing giants Axel Springer in Germany, Prisa Media in Spain, France's Le Monde newspaper, and, most recently, the London-based Financial Times.
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