New York Times Sues OpenAI and Microsoft

The New York Times, one of the most prominent news organizations, sued two of the biggest artificial intelligence companies, OpenAI and Microsoft. The lawsuit claims that OpenAI and Microsoft have unlawfully used articles from the Times to train their generative models and that the two companies have violated copyright laws. The lawsuit has shone a bright spotlight on the topic of originality and Artificial Intelligence.

            Chatbots such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Microsoft Bing Chatbot is trained on a diverse collection of text online. The dataset is crucial in the machine learning process and a wider array of data augments and improves the model. Some of the text is copyrighted material such as the Times’ material, but due to this use of data being considered as transformative, it does not infringe any kind of law. However, the lawsuit states that this use of their data is not lawful at all since it is not transformative and merely acts as a substitute for the services that they provide, citing instances where the chatbots would almost directly regurgitate the Times’ articles.

            OpenAI has responded and stated that regurgitation is a rare bug that they are currently working to fix. They also argued that a response like the one cited in the lawsuit can only be prompted by an intentional input that is able to circumvent ChatGPT’s measures to not regurgitate information and is, therefore, misuse of the chatbot.

            The New York Times is the first major organization to take legal action against artificial intelligence companies and has focused much needed attention on the topic of copyright and AI. The Times brings forth a legitimate concern: AI disincentivizing original work by drawing the audience of the Times and other media outlets toward AI that would be able to easily gather and restate the information. While chatbots are currently nowhere close to assuming the role of mass media, this is a potential future which could lead to devastating outcomes if fewer people decide to engage with different media outlets.

            Many smaller entities, such as authors George R.R Martin and John Grisham, have already sued artificial intelligence companies on this matter. But the Times being the first major organization really underscores the importance of this discussion of copyright laws and chatbots. The outcome of this lawsuit may significantly dictate the future of artificial intelligence and the extent to which it can use copyrighted material.