Newspapers Sue OpenAI, Microsoft for Copyright Violation in AI Chatbot Training

In a federal court in New York, eight American newspapers filed a lawsuit against OpenAI and Microsoft on Tuesday. The lawsuit, led by The New York Daily News and The Chicago Tribune, accuses the companies of violating copyright laws by using millions of copyrighted articles to train their AI technology behind chatbots ChatGPT and Co-pilot.

The lawsuit claims that the defendants used copyrighted content without permission or payment to enhance their AI products. The media companies argue that OpenAI and Microsoft must obtain consent and pay a fair value for using their content. Additionally, the lawsuit accuses the companies of providing verbatim excerpts from entire articles and attributing misleading information to publications in certain applications.

Other newspapers involved in the lawsuit include The Orlando Sentinel, The Florida Sun Sentinel, The San Jose Mercury News, The Denver Post, The Orange County Register, and The St. Paul Pioneer Press. OpenAI and Microsoft did not address the specific allegations but stated that they take great care with their products and design process to support news organizations.

This is not the first time that media organizations have taken legal action against AI companies over copyright issues. In December 2021, The New York Times filed a similar lawsuit against OpenAI, which defended itself by arguing that using publicly available data, including news articles, is fair use. Meanwhile, other media organizations such as The Associated Press, the Financial Times, and Le Monde have partnered with OpenAI instead of taking legal action.

The outcome of this lawsuit will likely impact how AI companies use copyrighted content in the future. If media organizations succeed in their legal actions against these tech giants, it could set a precedent for future cases involving AI-generated content derived from copyrighted materials.