"The New York Times" sues OpenAI and Microsoft
Because chatbots are mining copyrighted content without permission, the newspaper "The New York Times" is going to court. It is demanding billions in compensation from Microsoft and OpenAI.
The "New York Times" has filed a lawsuit against OpenAI and Microsoft. The AI language model behind ChatGPT, Bing and Copilot is said to infringe the US newspaper's copyrights. The legal dispute could set an important precedent, as language models have often been trained with content from the internet without permission, which has led to criticism.
According to the lawsuit, the chatbots from OpenAI and Microsoft make very explicit use of the journalistic articles. They would copy wording verbatim in some cases, adopt detailed content and even imitate the newspaper's writing style. This undermines The Times' relationship with its readership and at the same time deprives the company of subscription, licence, advertising and partner income.
"Freeloading business model"
The production of copyright-protected content involves a great deal of effort. Microsoft and OpenAI make enormous profits from the source material via Copilot and Bing without compensating the New York Times. This business model is parasitic and threatens the concept of high-quality journalism.
The lawsuit against the two tech companies does not include an exact sum of money. However, it demands that OpenAI and Microsoft be held liable for financial damages totalling billions of dollars. In addition, the newspaper's copyrighted articles are to be removed from the chatbots' training base.
Failure of out-of-court settlement
OpenAI and Microsoft have not yet commented on the allegations. This is not the first time that AI language models have been criticised. Authors and artists have been sounding the alarm for some time because the bots have been scraping their texts and images. The photo agency Getty Images has also filed a lawsuit.
In other cases, media companies have already entered into partnerships with AI companies. Axel Springer receives reportedly tens of millions of euros annually from OpenAI. In return, the language model is allowed to use the content of media such as "Bild", "Welt", "Politico" and "Business Insider".
The New York Times also reportedly sought talks with OpenAI back in April in order to negotiate a "financial agreement and technological guidelines". Apparently without success. The courts will now have to decide on the case.
Cover image: Shutterstock
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