New York Times sues OpenAI, Microsoft for copyright infringement
- New York Times lawsuit alleges unauthorised use of its published works to train AI models
- OpenAI ‘surprised and disappointed’, but hopes to find a mutually beneficial way to work together
The New York Times sued ChatGPT-maker OpenAI and Microsoft in a US court on Wednesday, alleging that the companies’ powerful AI models used millions of articles for training without permission.
Through their AI chatbots, the companies “seek to free-ride on The Times’ massive investment in its journalism by using it to build substitutive products without permission or payment,” the lawsuit said.
Copyright is becoming a major battleground for the much-hyped generative AI sector, with publishers, musicians and artists increasingly lawyering up to get paid for technology that is being built with their content.
With the suit, The New York Times also chose the more confrontational response to the sudden rise of AI chatbots, in contrast to other media groups such as Germany’s Axel Springer or the Associated Press that have entered content deals with OpenAI.
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“If The Times and other news organisations cannot produce and protect their independent journalism, there will be a vacuum that no computer or artificial intelligence can fill,” said the Times’ complaint.
