The American newspaper The New York Times has sued Microsoft and OpenAI, the company behind the popular artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot ChatGPT, for alleged copyright infringement, claiming that it unlawfully used its published works for AI training.
The Times filed the lawsuit in New York on Wednesday, asserting that the companies illegally utilized the newspaper’s work to create AI products that now compete with it.
– Through Microsoft’s Bing Chat (recently renamed Copilot) and OpenAI’s ChatGPT, the defendants seek to profit from The Times’ substantial investment in its journalism by using it to create substitute products without permission or payment – states the complaint.
– This lawsuit aims to hold [the defendants] accountable for billions of dollars in statutory and actual damages owed due to the unlawful copying and use of The Times’ uniquely valuable works – the document states.
The technology news website The Verge quoted OpenAI spokesperson Lindsey Held, who said in an emailed statement that “ongoing discussions with The New York Times have been productive and have been moving constructively forward, so we are surprised and disappointed by this development.”
The California startup OpenAI has captured global attention with its text robot ChatGPT – developed with Microsoft’s support – which can respond to queries with essays, poetry, computer code, and other content.
Its release in 2022 drew attention to advancements in artificial intelligence and sparked discussions about potential consequences.
