In a move with game-changing ramifications for artificial intelligence and the news publishing sector, the New York Times (NYT) has initiated legal proceedings against Microsoft and OpenAI, alleging unauthorized “copying and using millions of its articles”. This legal action, as reported by The Verge on Wednesday, asserts that the technology entities have employed the NYT's content to build their artificial intelligence models ChatGPT and Copilot, thereby engaging in direct competition with the content generated by the media outlet.
The New York Times contends that the artificial intelligence models developed by Microsoft and OpenAI, utilizing its proprietary content, have proven to be “extremely lucrative” for the tech giants. These models, such as ChatGPT and Copilot, are alleged to have been instrumental in enhancing the technological capabilities and market competitiveness of both entities.
The legal action for copyright infringement arises in conjunction with the New York Times (NYT) aligning itself with several other publications to impede OpenAI's web crawler from extracting content from its website. This concerted effort aims to prevent the unauthorized use of its content for the advancement of OpenAI's Large Language Model (LLM) artificial intelligence tools.
In the lawsuit, NYT has alleged that ChatGPT and Copilot "generate output that recites Times content verbatim, closely summarizes it, and mimics its expressive style.” The publication alleged that AI tools backed by Microsoft and OpenAI are undermining its relationship with readers while also depriving it of “subscription, licensing, advertising, and affiliate revenue.”
While claiming that the tech giants are liable to pay “billions of dollars” for copying its content without permission, NYT said that Microsoft and OpenAI sought a "free ride on The Times’s massive investment in its journalism.”
“Through Microsoft’s Bing Chat (recently rebranded as “Copilot”) and OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Defendants seek to free-ride on The Times’s massive investment in its journalism by using it to build substitutive products without permission or payment,” the lawsuit said.
The lawsuit come as governments across the world are scrutinizing the origins of data employed by artificial intelligence (AI) companies in training their models. The development has the potential to significantly alter the dynamics between news publishers and AI entities concerning data utilization.
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