A group of eight U.S. newspapers has taken legal action against OpenAI and Microsoft, alleging that the tech giants have been using millions of copyrighted news articles without permission or remuneration to train their artificial intelligence chatbots.
The lawsuit, filed on Tuesday in a New York federal court, includes prominent publications such as the New York Daily News, Chicago Tribune, Denver Post, Mercury News, Orange County Register, St. Paul Pioneer-Press, Orlando Sentinel, and South Florida Sun Sentinel. All of these newspapers are under the ownership of Alden Global Capital.
Frank Pine, executive editor for MediaNews Group and Tribune Publishing, stated, \"We've spent billions of dollars gathering information and reporting news at our publications, and we can't allow OpenAI and Microsoft to expand the Big Tech playbook of stealing our work to build their own businesses at our expense.\"
While Microsoft declined to comment on the lawsuit, OpenAI responded by affirming its commitment to supporting news organizations. The company stated, \"While we were not previously aware of Alden Global Capital's concerns, we are actively engaged in constructive partnerships and conversations with many news organizations around the world to explore opportunities, discuss any concerns, and provide solutions.\"
This lawsuit is the latest in a series of legal battles facing OpenAI and Microsoft in Manhattan's federal court, where they are concurrently dealing with other copyright lawsuits from entities like the New York Times and bestselling authors such as John Grisham, Jodi Picoult, and George R.R. Martin. Additionally, the companies are contending with separate lawsuits in San Francisco's federal court.
Tech companies argue that utilizing vast amounts of publicly accessible internet content to train AI systems falls under the \"fair use\" doctrine of American copyright law. In some instances, they have mitigated potential legal challenges by compensating organizations for the content used.
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U.S. newspapers sue OpenAI, Microsoft for copyright infringement
cgtn.com
