US news publishers have filed a lawsuit against Microsoft and OpenAI for copyright infringement in training their generative artificial intelligence models. The publishers, including names like the New York Daily News and the Chicago Tribune, accuse the tech giants of using their proprietary material without permission or payment.
The suit alleges that Microsoft and OpenAI have unlawfully utilized millions of copyrighted articles to train their language models, such as ChatGPT and Copilot, resulting in the incorrect attribution of information to the publishers. The complaint specifically points to the output of near-verbatim copies of the publishers’ works by the current GPT-4 LLM when prompted.
While Microsoft has not yet commented on the matter, OpenAI has stated that they are committed to supporting news organizations through their products and design process. They emphasized the potential benefits of AI tools like ChatGPT in enhancing the news experience and reader engagement.
This lawsuit follows a similar case brought by The New York Times against Microsoft and OpenAI, where the news outlet alleged that the chatbots created by the companies were diverting readers and revenue from their website. OpenAI retaliated by accusing NYT of hacking ChatGPT to generate anomalous results.
In India, news publishers have also raised concerns about fair compensation for the use of their content in training AI models. They have sought amendments to IT rules to protect their content and revenue from tech companies like Google.
As the legal battle between news publishers and tech giants continues, the future of content licensing and AI training remains a contentious issue globally.
