The New York Times is suing OpenAI and Microsoft for copyright infringement over the unauthorized use of millions of its articles to train its chatbots, including ChatGPT and Copilot. The legal action opens a new front in the years-long battle between Big Tech and the web media industry, pitting one of America’s major newspapers, The Old Lady in Gray, against Sam Altman, a pioneer of artificial intelligence. at the helm of a giant valued at nearly $100 billion.
The New York Times lawsuit — the first by a major US media company — does not list a specific monetary demand but notes that OpenAI and Microsoft should be liable for “billions of dollars in damages” related to the newspaper’s “illegal copying and use.” work. Hence the requirement to destroy any chatbot model that used newspaper material. In court filings, the New York Times portrays ChatGPT and other AI systems as potential competitors in the publishing industry: chatbots can actually respond to many topics, even topical ones, base their statements on Times articles, and therefore discourage users. to visit the website. The paper cites examples of chatbots offering answers taken almost verbatim from their articles, which would require a subscription to access.
Potential damage
Lawyers for The Old Lady in Gray also warn of potential brand damage caused by so-called ‘hallucinations’, phenomena where chatbots report false information that is then incorrectly attributed to the source. The two tech giants sought to “take advantage of the New York Times’ massive investment” in journalism and use its “free content to create products” that can lure audiences away from the paper, the suit says. Concerns about the uncompensated use of intellectual property by AI systems have long been prevalent in creative industries due to AI’s ability to mimic natural language and generate sophisticated written responses to virtually any topic. The lawsuit will have major implications for the legal contours of generative artificial intelligence and could also have huge implications for the media.
Warning
The New York Times reached out to Microsoft and OpenAI in April expressing their concerns about the use of their intellectual property and seeking an “amicable solution”, but to no avail. “If the Times and other organizations fail to produce and protect their independent journalism, there will be a void that no computer or artificial intelligence can fill,” the lawsuit says. With less journalism being produced, the cost to society will be huge.†Publishing companies have spent the past year exploring the legal, financial, and journalistic implications of the AI ​​boom. The Associated Press reached a licensing deal with OpenAI in July, as did Axel Springer, the German publisher that owns Politico and Business Insider, last month.
