Microsoft, Open AI Sued for Copyright Infringement
Artificial intelligence has been gaining traction in recent years. Technology companies are using a variety of materials to train chatbots and apps such as ChatGPT to become more human-like.
As you can imagine, this is bringing about legal concerns. Training these apps and chatbots involves the use of copyrighted articles and already published stories. As such, newspapers are mad with rage, suing OpenAI and tech companies such as Microsoft for copyright infringement.
Eight newspaper publishers have filed a lawsuit against OpenAI and Microsoft, asking the defendants to stop using copyrighted articles to train artificial intelligence chatbots. All eight newspapers are owned by MediaNews Group or Tribune Publishing. The newspapers involved are:
- The New York Daily News
- The Chicago Tribune
- The Orlando Sentinel
- The Sun Sentinel of Florida
- The San Jose Mercury News
- The Denver Post
- The Orange County Register
- The St. Paul Pioneer Press
The lawsuit is alleging that ChatGPT copied stories from the newspapers “with impunity.” The makers of ChatGPT never sought permission to use millions of articles that were used to respond to questions. The chatbot relies on vast amounts of data scraped from the internet to answer questions and prompts by users. It has become a direct competitor to newspapers.
In addition, the lawsuit claims that ChatGPT often falsely attributes reporting to the newspapers in the answers it generates. This has led to tarnished reputation of the news outlets. An example is that ChatGPT states that The Chicago Tribune had recommended an infant lounger that was later linked to infant deaths and recalled. This was blatantly false, as the paper never endorsed the product.
In another example, ChatGPT was asked if smoking cures asthma. The chatbot responded that The Denver Post published research indicating that smoking can be a cure for asthma. This is clearly not true, and the paper never published such research.
OpenAI responded to the lawsuit, stating that it takes “great care” to support news organizations in building its products. The goal of the chatbot is to work with newspapers and other media to enhance the news experience. Microsoft, OpenAI’s biggest financial backer, did not publicly respond to the lawsuit.
Attorneys for the newspapers are asking for unspecified monetary damages and would like the practice of using its copyrighted work to end. In addition, the lawsuit asks for the destruction of any AI models OpenAI uses that incorporate works published by the newspapers. However, AI experts claim this would be impossible to accomplish without completely rebuilding its models, which would be costly and time-consuming. Re-training an AI model could potentially cost billions of dollars.
Learn More About Copyright Infringement
When you create a product or content that makes money, you need to take proper steps to protect it. Today’s advanced technology makes it easy to steal people’s ideas and profit from them.
Get the help you need from Orlando copyright infringement lawyer B.F. Godfrey from Godfrey Legal. Having the assistance of an experienced lawyer can aid greatly when trying to recover the compensation you deserve for intellectual property you have created. Schedule a consultation today by calling (407) 890-0023 or filling out the online form.
Source:
health.wusf.usf.edu/2024-04-30/eight-newspapers-sue-openai-microsoft-for-copyright-infringement
