The Center for Investigative Reporting (CIR), the country's oldest nonprofit newsroom, has taken legal action against OpenAI and Microsoft over alleged copyright infringement.
This move comes as the news industry continues to intensify its efforts to combat the rise of AI technology in journalism. The CIR's lawsuit follows similar legal action taken by publications like The New York Times, the Chicago Tribune, and the New York Daily News.
In the lawsuit filed in the Southern District of New York, the CIR accuses OpenAI and Microsoft of “copied, used, abridged, and displaying CIR’s valuable content without CIR’s permission or authorization, and without any compensation to CIR.”
Since the release of OpenAI's ChatGPT chatbot in late 2022, it has been scanning the internet to produce responses to user questions, often relying heavily on content obtained from news stories.
“When they populated their training sets with works of journalism, Defendants had a choice: to respect works of journalism, or not,” The CIR argues, “Defendants chose the latter.”
According to the lawsuit, OpenAI and Microsoft's actions constitute what the CIR refers to as "free rider behavior." The CIR alleges that ChatGPT was trained not to acknowledge or respect copyright, and this was done without permission.
The CIR is pursuing either real damages and defendants' profits or statutory damages of at least $750 per infringed work and $2,500 per DMCA violation, in accordance with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.
Responses and Reactions to the Lawsuit
Monika Bauerlein, CEO of the CIR, expressed her dissatisfaction with the alleged actions of OpenAI and Microsoft. She accused them of sucking in the CIR's stories to enhance their product without seeking permission or providing compensation.
Bauerlein emphasized that OpenAI and Microsoft's behavior is not only unfair but also violates copyright laws. She highlighted the value of journalism and the need to protect the work of journalists.
The lawsuit filed by the CIR against OpenAI and Microsoft is significant in the news industry. With the financial struggles faced by many publications in maintaining sufficient revenue, the rise of AI-generated content poses a further threat to their sustainability.
As of now, OpenAI and Microsoft have not issued any responses to the allegations and lawsuit brought forth by the CIR.
The CIR is not the only news organization that has sued OpenAI and Microsoft over copyright infringement. The New York Times has reportedly spent $1 million on its lawsuit against the two companies.
In addition, publications such as the New York Daily News, the Chicago Tribune, The Intercept, Raw Story, AlterNet, and The Denver Post have also taken legal action.
Prominent authors, including Jonathan Franzen, John Grisham, George R.R. Martin, and Jodi Picoult, have filed lawsuits against OpenAI, claiming copyright infringement in using their work to train ChatGPT.
Despite these lawsuits, some news organizations have chosen to partner with OpenAI. OpenAI has signed licensing deals with various publishers, including The Associated Press, Axel Springer, the Financial Times, Dotdash Meredith, News Corp, Vox Media, and The Atlantic.
These partnerships allow OpenAI to access and display content from these publishers within its ChatGPT chatbot.