More trouble for OpenAI, faces copyright lawsuits from writers over AI training practices for ChatGPT
Authors have filed a federal lawsuit in San Francisco against OpenAI, a Microsoft-backed program that uses authors’ content to train its popular AI-powered chatbot, ChatGPT.
artificial intelligence
Highlights
- The lawsuit is the third copyright infringement class action brought by authors against OpenAI, which is backed by Microsoft
- ChatGPT can summarise their work and create a copy of their writing style
A group of American writers, including Michael Chabon, who won a Pulitzer Prize, have filed a lawsuit against OpenAI, a Microsoft-backed company, in San Francisco federal court.
According to a Reuters report, the writers alleged that OpenAI used their writing, content and creativity to create ChatGPT, a chatbot powered by artificial intelligence (AI).
In their lawsuit filed on Friday, the authors of the play "The Aviator" by Michael Chabon and the authors of "The Imitation Game" by Matthew Klam, "The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy" by James Cameron, and "The Hangover" by Stephen King, claimed that OpenAI illegally copied their works in order to make ChatGPT more efficient and be able to respond to human text prompts. The authors allege that all of their data was scrapped from the internet without their permission.
More writers sue OpenAI for copyright infringement over AI training https://t.co/FmWuB2qih9 pic.twitter.com/qssVlBraIq
— Reuters (@Reuters) September 11, 2023
Ongoing copyright disputes
This lawsuit marks at least third copyright infringement class action brought against OpenAI. Earlier this year, Comedian, Actress and writer Sarah Silverman also initiated copyright infringement lawsuits against Meta Platforms and OpenAI, alleging that her content was utilised without her permission to train AI language models.
The continued legal disputes reflect the increasing concern among the author community regarding AI's exploitation of their intellectual property.
Representatives of Michael Chabon, one of the authors involved in the lawsuit, declined to comment and referred inquiries to the authors legal counsel.
Broader industry impact
OpenAI isn't the only big company that's had to deal with copyright owners suing them over using their content for AI training.
Microsoft, Meta Platforms (which used to be Facebook), and Stability AI are just a few of the big names that have been hit with lawsuits.
These lawsuits are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the legal issues surrounding copyright infringement in AI and data training.
Mimicking writing styles
In addition to damages, the authors allege that ChatGPT is able to accurately summarise their work and generate text that mimics their original writing styles, further validating their claim of unlawful use.
The authors are seeking a court order to prevent OpenAI from continuing its unlawful and unfair business practices.
Potential implications of AI development
This legal action has the potential to have a far-reaching impact on the utilisation of copyrighted material in AI education and may serve as a reference for future legal proceedings in the area of artificial intelligence.
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