New York Times Sues OpenAI and Microsoft
....over the use of its stories to train chatbots
The New York Times has filed a federal lawsuit against OpenAI and Microsoft seeking to end the practice of using its stories to train chatbots, saying that copyright infringements at the paper alone could be worth billions.
The paper joins a growing list of individuals and publishers trying to stop OpenAI from using copyrighted material.
In the suit filed Wednesday in Manhattan federal court, the Times said OpenAI and Microsoft are advancing their technology through the āunlawful use of The Timesās work to create artificial intelligence products that compete with itā and āthreatens The Timesās ability to provide that service.ā
OpenAI and Microsoft did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Media organizations have been pummeled by a migration of readers to online platforms and while many publications have carved out a digital space online as well, artificial intelligence technology has threatened to upend numerous industries, including media.
Artificial intelligence companies scrape information available online, including articles published by news organizations, to train generative AI chatbots. The large language models are also trained on a huge trove of other human-written materials, such as instructional manuals and digital books. That helps them to build a strong command of language and grammar and to answer questions correctly. Still, they often get many things wrong. In its lawsuit, for example, the Times said OpenAIās GPT-4 falsely attributed product recommendations to Wirecutter, the paperās product reviews site, endangering its reputation.
OpenAI and other AI companies, including rival Anthropic, have attracted billions in investments very rapidly since public and business interest in the technology has exploded.
Microsoft has a partnership with OpenAI that allows it to capitalize on the AI technology made by the artificial intelligence company. The Redmon, Washington, tech giant is also OpenAIās biggest backer and has invested billions of dollars into the company since the two began their partnership in 2019 with a $1 billion investment. As part of the agreement, Microsoftās supercomputers help power OpenAIās AI research and the tech giant integrates the startupās technology into its products.
The paperās complaint comes as the number of lawsuits filed against OpenAI for copyright infringement is growing. The company has been sued by several writers – including comedian Sarah Silverman – who say their books were ingested to train OpenAIās AI models without their permission. In June, more than 4,000 writers signed a letter to the CEOs of OpenAI, Google, Microsoft, Meta, and other AI developers accusing them of exploitative practices in building chatbots that āmimic and regurgitateā their language, style, and ideas.
The Times did not list specific damages that it is seeking, but said the legal action āseeks to hold them responsible for the billions of dollars in statutory and actual damages that they owe for the unlawful copying and use of The Timesās uniquely valuable works.ā
The Times, however, is seeking the destruction of GPT and other large language models or training sets that incorporate its work.
In the complaint, the Times said Microsoft and OpenAI āseek to free-ride on The Timesās massive investments in its journalismā by using it to build products without payment or permission.
The New York Times said itās never permitted to anyone to use its content for generative AI purposes.
The lawsuit also follows what appears to be breakdowns in talks between the newspaper and the two companies.
The Times said it reached out to Microsoft and OpenAI in April to raise concerns about the use of its intellectual property and reach a resolution on the issue. During the talks, the newspaper said it sought to āensure it received fair valueā for the use of its content, āfacilitate the continuation of a healthy news ecosystem and help develop GenAI technology in a responsible way that benefits society and supports a well-informed public.ā
āThese negotiations have not led to a resolution,ā the lawsuit said.