OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT, has recently filed a motion to dismiss several claims in a copyright lawsuit initiated by The New York Times. In response, OpenAI has accused the US media outlet of exploiting a bug in their product to create evidence for the legal case. The AI company claims that The New York Times paid someone to hack their products in order to generate anomalous results that were used as evidence in the copyright case.
According to OpenAI, the newspaper’s alleged actions violated the company’s terms of use and relied on deceptive prompts to target and exploit a bug in the AI technology. They also stated that the evidence presented by The New York Times focused on fringe behaviors and contended that the media outlet’s claims did not meet their own journalistic standards.
The lawsuit, which was launched at the end of 2023, asserts that AI models like ChatGPT have copied and used millions of copyrighted news articles and investigative works without permission. The New York Times claimed that OpenAI’s products were built using their copyrighted content, allowing the company to benefit from the journalistic investment made by the media outlet.
OpenAI refuted these claims, stating that the focus of the case centered around two uncommon phenomena in the AI model: regurgitation and hallucination. They explained that regurgitation, also known as unintended memorization or overfitting, is a challenge that researchers continuously work to address by ensuring diverse datasets. Hallucination, on the other hand, occurs when models produce seemingly realistic but incorrect answers, underscoring the ongoing challenge of AI development.
In response to OpenAI’s motion to dismiss, The New York Times’ lead counsel noted that the AI company did not dispute copying millions of articles from the media outlet. He emphasized that using OpenAI’s products to uncover evidence of copyright infringement was not hacking, but rather a legitimate investigation into the unauthorized use of their copyrighted works.
The legal battle between OpenAI and The New York Times continues as both parties present their arguments in the copyright lawsuit. The outcome of this case may have significant implications for the use of AI technology in generating content and its relationship to intellectual property rights.
