A group of U.S. newspapers have taken legal action against tech giants Microsoft and OpenAI, accusing them of utilizing articles without authorization in their generative artificial intelligence products. The lawsuit, filed by eight newspapers including the New York Daily News and the Chicago Tribune, focuses on the integration of ChatGPT and Microsoft’s Copilot assistant in various Microsoft products like Windows and Bing.
The publishers claim that ChatGPT and Copilot have used millions of copyrighted articles without permission or compensation. These AI models have been trained on data sets containing text from the newspapers, which can generate text with minimal human input. Furthermore, Microsoft’s Bing search index supposedly incorporates information from the newspapers, affecting Copilot’s responses, which often lack links to the publishers’ websites.
This legal action comes on the heels of a similar challenge by The New York Times against OpenAI for copyright infringement related to the ChatGPT chatbot. While OpenAI has formed agreements with media companies like Axel Springer and the Financial Times to enhance its AI models, concerns still persist among other publishers about unauthorized use of their content.
In response to the lawsuit, an OpenAI spokesperson acknowledged the concerns raised by Alden Global Capital and expressed the company’s commitment to supporting news organizations. They highlighted ongoing efforts to engage in partnerships with news organizations to address concerns and enhance the news consumption experience.
As tech companies continue to expand the use of AI tools in various applications, the issue of copyright infringement and fair use of content remains a pressing concern for publishers. The outcome of this legal battle could have implications for how AI models are trained and the relationship between technology companies and media organizations.
