New York Times sues ChatGPT maker OpenAI, Microsoft for copyright infringement, unlawful use of stories to train chatbots

The New York Times has initiated a lawsuit against OpenAI and Microsoft, alleging that they have unlawfully used millions of the newspaper’s articles to train their artificial intelligence (AI) technologies. This marks the first instance of a major US media organisation taking legal action against OpenAI and Microsoft, the creators of ChatGPT and other AI platforms, over copyright infringement. The New York Times has adopted a confrontational stance towards the rapid emergence of AI chatbots, a stark contrast to other media groups such as Germany’s Axel Springer and the Associated Press, which have entered into content agreements with OpenAI.

The newspaper alleges that the defendants have exploited The Times’s substantial investment in journalism to develop substitutive products without obtaining permission or providing compensation. The New York Times is not seeking a specific amount in damages, but it asserts that OpenAI and Microsoft have caused damages amounting to “billions of dollars”. It also demands that the companies destroy chatbot models and training sets that incorporate its material. The AI models that power ChatGPT and Microsoft’s Copilot were trained for years on content available on the internet, under the assumption that it was fair to use without the need for compensation.

However, the lawsuit contends that the unlawful use of The Times’ work to create artificial intelligence products threatens its ability to deliver quality journalism. The Times argues that these tools were built with and continue to use independent journalism and content that is only available because of the reporting, editing, and fact-checking carried out by them and their peers at a high cost and with considerable expertise. Other parties have also challenged OpenAI’s alleged misuse of their copyright material. Notably, novelists including David Baldacci, Jonathan Franzen, John Grisham and Scott Turow, and comedian Sarah Silverman have also sued OpenAI and Microsoft, claiming that AI systems might have co-opted their books. In response to the mounting lawsuits, Microsoft and AI player Google have announced that they would provide legal protection for customers sued for copyright infringement over content generated by its AI.