On Wednesday, The New York Times sued Microsoft and OpenAI in a Federal District Court in Manhattan over the use of its content to train generative artificial intelligence and large-language model systems.
According to The New York Times, the AI models of both companies accessed “millions of articles published by The Times.”
The Times is now seeking damages and also an order that the companies stop using its content. Furthermore, TNYT also wants both Microsoft and OpenAI to destroy the data that has been already harvested.
The New York Times further stated that,
“The suit does not include an exact monetary demand. But it says the defendants should be held responsible for “billions of dollars in statutory and actual damages” related to the “unlawful copying and use of The Times’s uniquely valuable works.” It also calls for the companies to destroy any chatbot models and training data that use copyrighted material from The Times.”
It’s worth noting that, in April this year NY Times entered into talks with Microsoft and OpenAI to come up with “an amicable resolution” on this alleged copyright infringement. Sadly, the talks didn’t result in a mutual agreement.
Both ChatGPT by OpenAI and Microsoft’s Copilot were trained using resources available on the internet under the assumption that it was fair use without the need for any compensation.
A spokesperson for the Times said,
“These tools were built with and continue to use independent journalism and content that is only available because we and our peers reported, edited, and fact-checked it at high cost and with considerable expertise.”
Additionally, the lawsuit alleged that,
“There is nothing ‘transformative’ about using The Times’ content without payment to create products that substitute for The Times and steal audiences away from it.”