The New York Times is suing OpenAI and Microsoft over what it describes as illegally using copyrighted material to help train artificial intelligence models. The lawsuit was filed today in a Manhattan federal court (via Reuters).
The publication accuses OpenAI and Microsoft of attempting to “free-ride on The Times’s massive investment in its journalism” by using millions of copyrighted articles and material without prior consent to train AI models, including ChatGPT. The New York Times alleges that it tried to negotiate a partnership agreement with the defendants to license its content before it opted to sue but to no avail.
In its lawsuit, the publication demonstrates some examples of the most recent GPT-4 model outputting literal New York Times articles exactly as they are with no paraphrasing. While the publication states that it’s the first media organization in the United States to file a lawsuit of this kind against OpenAI and Microsoft, the amount of damages it’s seeking is yet to be specified. The publication would also like the defendant duo to cease and destroy any AI training models that use copyrighted New York Times content.
The news comes amid rumors of Apple trying to seek a licensing agreement with various publishers to train their content on the Cupertino company’s AI models. While those talks remain early, Apple is believed to be ready to spend $50 million on multiyear deals to obtain copyrighted material for its own AI services. Publishers that were said to discuss licensing terms with Apple are Condé Nast, NBC News, and IAC.
While nothing is set in stone yet for a potential deal with Apple, some publishers’ executives that the Cupertino giant reached out to praised its step in seeking prior approval to use copyrighted content for AI purposes. Today’s news highlights the importance of an explicit licensing agreement, and it seems like Apple’s patience could pay off in avoiding a potentially prolonged and costly legal battle.
Earlier reports indicated that Apple is now spending millions of dollars a day on its AI endeavors. The company is also said to have developed an internal ChatGPT-like tool dubbed “Apple GPT” as a way to test its AI frameworks before launching consumer-facing features next year as part of iOS 18.
