The New York Times has taken legal action against OpenAI and Microsoft, filing a federal lawsuit that aims to halt the use of its articles for training AI chatbots. The newspaper alleges that both companies are essentially stealing its journalists’ work by using its stories without permission, often replicating the Times’ material verbatim. The lawsuit was filed after negotiations between the Times and the two companies broke down. This move comes as the news industry faces the challenging transition to online platforms and the growing threat of AI technology.
The Times argues that AI chatbots, such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT, divert web traffic away from the paper and other copyright holders. This, in turn, reduces the likelihood of users visiting the original source for information, which is crucial for advertising revenue and online subscriptions. The newspaper claims that these chatbots compete with the content they are trained on, harming the Times’ livelihood.
An OpenAI spokesperson stated that the company respects the rights of content creators and is committed to working with them to ensure mutual benefits from AI technology. Microsoft has not yet commented on the lawsuit.
AI companies rely on online information, including articles by news organizations, to train generative chatbots. However, the technology is still imperfect, often generating incorrect answers. In its lawsuit, the Times pointed out instances where OpenAI’s GPT-4 wrongly attributed product recommendations to its product reviews site, damaging its reputation.
OpenAI and other AI companies have attracted significant investments due to the growing interest in the technology. Microsoft, in particular, has a substantial partnership with OpenAI, offering support for their AI research and integrating OpenAI’s technology into its own products.
This lawsuit against OpenAI follows a series of copyright infringement lawsuits filed against the company by writers who claim their books were used without permission to train OpenAI’s AI models. Over 4,000 writers also signed a letter accusing tech companies of exploitative practices in building chatbots.
While OpenAI and other language models present a threat to the news industry, it remains unclear how this issue can be entirely resolved. The Times’ lawsuit highlights instances where OpenAI’s chatbots reproduced extensive sections of its articles, including an award-winning investigative report. The newspaper did not disclose specific damages sought but intends to hold the tech companies accountable for copying and using its work. The court is also requested to order the destruction of AI models or data sets that incorporate the Times’ work.
The News/Media Alliance, a trade group representing over 2,200 news organizations, supports the Times’ legal action. They emphasize the need for collaboration between quality journalism and AI, stating that using journalism without permission or payment is unlawful.
OpenAI has recently entered into partnerships with The Associated Press and Axel Springer, licensing their news content for use in its AI models. The partnership ensures that answers from OpenAI’s ChatGPT now include attribution and links to the original articles.
The Times compares its lawsuit to the copyright battle against Napster, where record companies successfully sued the file-sharing service for unauthorized use of their material. This lawsuit significantly impacted the music industry, leading to the dominance of industry-endorsed streaming services.
