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The New York Times has sued ChatGPT-maker OpenAI and Microsoft for allegedly using the newspaper’s articles to train its chatbots without permission or payment.
The US media publisher accused the tech companies of attempting to “free-ride” on its content by using copyrighted articles to help develop artificial intelligence tools.
In a federal lawsuit filed in Manhattan on Wednesday, The New York Times claimed that OpenAI and Microsoft were engaging in the “unlawful use of the Times’s work to create artificial intelligence products that compete with it”.
The newspaper, which has more than 10 million subscribers, called for the tech companies to be held responsible for “billions of dollars in statutory and actual damages” for their alleged copyright infringement.
It also demanded that OpenAI and Microsoft, which has invested more than $10bn (£7.8bn) in the start-up, destroy any chatbot models and training data developed using its content.
The lawsuit does not specify the amount of monetary damages that The New York Times is seeking.
An OpenAI spokesman said: “We respect the rights of content creators and owners and are committed to working with them to ensure they benefit from AI technology and new revenue models. Our ongoing conversations with the New York Times have been productive and moving forward constructively, so we are surprised and disappointed with this development. We’re hopeful that we will find a mutually beneficial way to work together, as we are doing with many other publishers.”
It follows concerns among news outlets that tech firms including OpenAI, Google and TikTok-owner Bytedance are unlawfully scraping their websites for data that can help train their AI-powered chatbots.
Earlier this year, The Telegraph revealed that the owner of the Daily Mail was preparing to sue Google over claims that the search engine giant unlawfully used hundreds of thousands of news stories to help develop its chatbot, Bard.
At the time, Google declined to comment on the potential legal action.
Other publishers seeking to protect their intellectual property have opted to negotiate licensing agreements with developers.
Axel Springer, Germany’s biggest publisher, earlier this month struck a deal allowing OpenAI to use its articles to train ChatGPT.
Although terms were not disclosed, the landmark agreement is understood to have included a one-off payment for previous content as well as a licensing fee worth tens of millions of euros per year.
Meanwhile, OpenAI in July signed a deal with the Associated Press allowing the San Francisco start-up to use the newswire’s content.
The tech company, which is reportedly seeking a valuation of $100bn, is also in talks with other publishers, including Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp, which owns The Times, The Sun and The Wall Street Journal newspapers.
The New York Times said it previously raised concerns over alleged copyright infringement with Microsoft and OpenAI in April to ensure the publisher received “fair value” for any use of its content.
According to the lawsuit, however, the negotiations did not lead to a resolution.