Major newspapers sue OpenAI, Microsoft over copyright infringement

[LAUREN TAYLOR]

IN A CASE THAT’S MAKING HEADLINES RATHER THAN REPORTING THEM — EIGHT MAJOR NEWSPAPERS, INCLUDING THE NEW YORK DAILY NEWS, CHICAGO TRIBUNE, AND DENVER POST—HAVE LAUNCHED A LAWSUIT AGAINST OPENAI AND MICROSOFT.

THE PAPERS — ALL OWNED BY ALDEN GLOBAL CAPITAL — ACCUSE THE TECH GIANTS OF USING MILLIONS OF THEIR COPYRIGHTED ARTICLES WITHOUT PERMISSION TO TRAIN SOPHISTICATED LARGE LANGUAGE MODELS LIKE OPENAI’S CHATGPT AND MICROSOFT’S COPILOT.

THE NEWSPAPERS CLAIM THESE TECH COMPANIES USE THEIR CONTENT WITHOUT PERMISSION TO POWER AI PRODUCTS THAT DIRECTLY COMPETE WITH TRADITIONAL MEDIA BY REPLICATING AND DISTRIBUTING THEIR JOURNALISTIC WORK. THIS INCLUDES CASES WHERE AI MODELS GENERATE CONTENT THAT IS EITHER IDENTICAL OR BARELY MODIFIED FROM THE ORIGINAL ARTICLES.

THE SUIT ALSO CLAIMS THAT THE AI SYSTEMS CAN GENERATE ERRORS OR “HALLUCINATIONS,” ATTRIBUTING FALSE INFORMATION TO THESE NEWSPAPERS — DAMAGING THEIR REPUTATIONS AND POTENTIALLY SPREADING MISINFORMATION.

IN RESPONSE TO THE LEGAL CHALLENGES, SOME NEWS ORGANIZATIONS HAVE formed LICENSING AGREEMENTS WITH AI COMPANIES.

tHE FINANCIAL TIMES ANNOUNCED this week A DEAL ALLOWING OPENAI TO USE ITS CONTENT IN RESPONSE TO CHATGPT QUERIES. THE ASSOCIATED PRESS AND AXEL SPRINGER HAVE SECURED similar AGREEMENTS TO LICENSE THEIR CONTENT FOR AI USAGE.

OPENAI, IN A STATEMENT, EMPHASIZED THEIR COMMITMENT TO COLLABORATING WITH NEWS ORGANIZATIONS TO ADDRESS CONCERNS AND EXPLORE BENEFICIAL OPPORTUNITIES INVOLVING AI TOOLS.

THE LAWSUIT ECHOES A SIMILAR CASE BROUGHT BY THE NEW YORK TIMES IN DECEMBER, ACCUSING OPENAI OF USING STOLEN CONTENT TO TRAIN ITS AI.

OPENAI HAS DEFENDED ITS PRACTICES, CLAIMING THAT USING PUBLICLY AVAILABLE DATA, SUCH AS NEWS ARTICLES, FOR TRAINING IS LEGALLY PERMISSIBLE UNDER FAIR USE.