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According to CNBC, U.S. media behemoth The New York Times is filing a lawsuit against OpenAI and its major investor Microsoft for violating the copyright of millions of NYT articles. These texts were used, the NYT says, for training AI models that underlie the ChatGPT chatbot.
The complainant claims those companies should be liable for billions of U.S. dollars in damages since ChatGPT now presents as a strong competitor of the popular newspaper as a source of information.
The New York Times is suing OpenAI/Microsoft for copyright over unauthorized use of millions of articles to train AI systems like ChatGPT.
— Rowan Cheung (@rowancheung) December 28, 2023
If NYT wins, it could cause tech giants to strike content deals and slow AI — a major blow to the future of ChatGPT. pic.twitter.com/obSF3Y986k
Microsoft, OpenAI, Elon Musk and ChatGPT
OpenAI was cofounded by Sam Altman in December 2015 as a nonprofit company, with Elon Musk being one of the other cofounders. Later, when OpenAI switched to a full-profit model, Musk, who had invested millions of U.S. dollars in it, left, as he had strong disagreements about that move.
Microsoft software giant became interested in artificial intelligence at approximately that moment and invested several times in OpenAI, turning into their major investor and later integrating OpenAI’s models into its own products. ChatGPT was launched in a closed mode in 2019 after Microsoft and OpenAI started working together; this is why the NYT is suing both of them now.
Earlier this year, Sam Altman founded Worldcoin (WLD) as a side project of his, and this technology (which includes not only crypto but also digital identity) spread widely through multiple partnerships, including the ultra-popular game Minecraft.
Authors and journalists filing suits against OpenAI
This is not the first lawsuit faced by the aforementioned companies. In November, both saw a class action in Manhattan filed against them. The suit was led by Hollywood Reporter editor Julian Sancton. That legal complaint from various writers, journalists and copywriters claimed that OpenAI used thousands of nonfiction books to train its AI language models so that ChatGPT could use them in the future.
Overall, there have been several other lawsuits filed against OpenAI in this regard; among the worried complainants are famous writers such as John Grisham and George Martin (the creator of “The Game of Thrones” saga). They accused Sam Altman’s brainchild of violating copyright and unauthorized usage of their books to train its AI chatbot.
OpenAI and Microsoft have denied all the allegations against them.