The New York Times has filed a lawsuit against OpenAI and Microsoft, accusing them of copyright infringement by using The Times articles to train artificial intelligence models such as ChatGPT.
Michael M. Grynbaum
The lawsuit, filed in Federal District Court in Manhattan, alleges that millions of The Times articles were used to train chatbots that now compete with the newspaper in disseminating information. The lawsuit, without specifying the exact amount of the claims, highlights potential damage to The Times' brand and loss of revenue due to decreased web traffic. The lawsuit says the defendants should be held liable for "billions of dollars in statutory and actual damages" related to the "illegal copying and use of uniquely valuable works."
The lawsuit reflects broader concerns about the uncompensated use of intellectual property in the fast-growing field of generative neural networks. Despite attempts to negotiate a resolution, the impasse led to litigation, highlighting the complexities and implications of artificial intelligence technologies for traditional media and the need for clear guidelines on the use of copyrighted material. In addition, the lawsuit calls for the destruction of any chatbot models and data for their training that use NYT copyrighted materials.
Timur Mamedov
Interestingly, this trial is taking place against the backdrop of news of Apple's desire to buy the copyrights to publishers' articles. Apple plans to use these articles to train generative models in the future. In my opinion, these two news highlights the difference between Apple's approach and the approaches of other companies that are chasing hype and trying to get ahead of the rest.
