(CNN) — The New York Times is suing OpenAI and Microsoft for copyright infringement, alleging that the companies’ artificial intelligence technology illegally copied millions of articles from the newspaper to train ChatGPT and other services to deliver information to people, technology that now competes with publishing.
The complaint is the latest in a series of lawsuits seeking to limit the use of alleged scraping of large portions of Internet content (without compensation) to train so-called large language AI models. Actors, writers, journalists and other creative types who publish their work online worry that artificial intelligence will learn from their material and provide competing chatbots and other sources of information without adequate compensation.
But the New York Times lawsuit is the first among major news publishers to take on OpenAI and Microsoft, the most recognizable artificial intelligence brands.
In a complaint filed Wednesday, the newspaper said that “Microsoft and OpenAI’s illegal use of The Times’ work to create competing artificial intelligence products threatens The Times’ ability to provide that service.”
The document noted that OpenAI and Microsoft used other sources in their “large-scale copying,” but “gave The Times a particular emphasis on content” seeking to “exploit the Times’ massive investment in its journalism by using it to create substitute products without permission ”. .” or payment”.
Microsoft and OpenAI did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the lawsuit.
The newspaper, in its complaint, said it objected when it discovered months ago that its work had been used to train large companies’ language models. Starting in April, the Times said it began negotiating with OpenAI and Microsoft to receive fair compensation and set the terms of a deal.
But the Times claims it has been unable to reach a resolution with the companies. Microsoft and OpenAI argue that the Times’ works are considered “fair use,” giving them the ability to use copyrighted material for a “transformative purpose,” the complaint says.
“There is nothing ‘transformative’ about using Times content without payment to create products that replace The Times and steal its audience,” the newspaper said in its complaint. “Because the results of the defendants’ GenAI models compete with and closely mimic the inputs used to train them, copying the Times for this purpose is not fair use.”
The newspaper is among major newsrooms, including CNN, that earlier this year added code to their websites that prevents OpenAI’s web crawler, GPTBot, from scanning their platforms for content.
The Times claims that because AI tools have been trained on its content, they can “generate results that recite the Times’ content word for word, summarize it in detail and mimic its expressive style, as dozens of examples demonstrate. .”These tools also incorrectly attribute false information to the newspaper,” the complaint reads.
The report also claims that Microsoft’s Bing search engine, which was updated earlier this year with OpenAI technology, “copies and sorts” the Times’ content to produce longer, more detailed answers than search engines traditional.
“By providing Times content without Times permission or authorization, Defendants’ tools undermine and damage The Times’ relationship with its readers and deprive The Times of subscriptions, licenses, advertising and affiliate revenue,” the lawsuit states.
New York Times Executive Vice President and General Counsel Diane Brayton told New York Times staff in a memo Wednesday morning that “we recognize the potential of [la IA generativa] for the public and journalism.
“But at the same time, we believe that the success of GenAI and the companies that develop it should not come at the expense of journalistic institutions,” reads the note to which CNN had access. “Using our work to create GenAI tools must have permission and an agreement that reflects the fair value of that work, as established by law.”
With its lawsuit, the newspaper seeks unspecified monetary damages, as well as a permanent injunction that would prevent Microsoft and OpenAI from continuing the alleged infringement. The Times also seeks the “destruction” of GPT and any other AI models or training sets that incorporate its content.
2023-12-27 14:18:00
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