The New York Times is taking action against tech giants OpenAI and Microsoft over their use of copyrighted articles to train AI models, alleging they violate its copyrighted articles as training datasets for AI models. Their lawsuit seeks billions in damages, as any chatbots or training datasets which take material from The Times should be dismantled immediately.
In its lawsuit, The Times alleges that these AI tools use millions of Times-owned works to develop large language models and are now directly competing against it and impeding its ability to monetise content.
What is the New York Times?
The New York Times is an iconic newspaper owned by the same family since 1896, known for its journalism and influence in American society. Additionally, The Times is famed for its editorials that have led many significant events of American history.
The lawsuit alleges that both companies illegally utilized millions of Times articles without permission in training their AI models – thus infringing upon its copyright and jeopardizing its ability to provide quality journalism.
Specifically, the lawsuit alleges instances in which ChatGPT and Microsoft Bing chatbots read paywalled Times articles without providing proper sourcing, or including false information that was falsely attributed to them. Furthermore, traffic to Times articles and affiliate links decreased which resulted in revenue lost for the newspaper.
The Times is seeking unspecified statutory damages and wants all GPT and large-language model training data destroyed. It’s the first major media organization to sue an AI company; although other copyright holders such as Sarah Silverman, authors, and comedians have filed similar suits against Meta and OpenAI over similar allegations.
What is OpenAI?
This lawsuit alleges OpenAI of copyright infringement by using unapproved nonfiction books to train its chatbots without author approval, according to Times content, for training chatbot models that ingested Times material. Damages totalling billions are demanded; any chatbot models containing Times material should also be dismantled.
The Times alleges that its AI system, GPT large language model, and chatbot for its Wirecutter product utilize its content “to free-ride on The Times’ massive investment of journalism by creating alternative products without permission or payment from us.”
This latest action from authors, journalists and creatives against tech companies that consume vast quantities of data to develop artificial intelligence tools is just another instance of their outrage against tech firms that consume vast quantities of information to develop artificial intelligence tools that threaten revenue in an already struggling publishing industry. Critics fear these AI tools may make their work obsolete altogether – this move by The Times against OpenAI may have far reaching ramifications for all publishers worldwide.
What is Microsoft?
At an estimated value of $2.8 trillion, Microsoft is the world’s most valuable software company, providing productivity apps, business processes, cloud services, video gaming apps for smartphones and tablets and intelligent devices. Their main operating systems include Windows Azure and Office as well as server and cross-productivity applications as well as certification of computer system integrators and developers as well as cloud platforms and mobile solutions.
In its lawsuit against Microsoft and OpenAI, The Times asserts they violate their copyright as this does not transform or comment upon original material; rather, it only refers back to it.
Instead, this lawsuit alleges the companies use copied articles from The Times’s journalism to develop competing AI products that free-ride on its extensive investment in journalism. As a result, it seeks billions in damages both statutory and actual from these firms, along with an order to cease using its content and delete any collected data already harvested from it. The complaint joins similar ones filed by authors, actors and other creatives concerned their work may be used as raw material in developing competitive AI products.
What is the lawsuit about?
The Times lawsuit alleges OpenAI and Microsoft of violating copyright law by illegally using The Times’ work without authorization and creating products which compete directly with it and steal its readership. The suit, filed Wednesday in Manhattan federal court, seeks billions in statutory and actual damages as well as the destruction of AI models that incorporate material from The Times newspaper.
The lawsuit claims that millions of Times articles were used to train OpenAI’s most recent large language artificial intelligence model. Content generated by chatbots such as Microsoft Copilot and Bing often mimicked Times style articles while attributing inaccurate product reviews information back to Wirecutter, the paper’s product reviews site.
The Times lawsuit isn’t the first one filed against AI companies for copyright infringement. Comedian Sarah Silverman and two authors including Game of Thrones author George R R Martin sued Meta last year over claims it used their copyrighted works to train its LLaMA AI language model.