On Wednesday, The New York Times initiated a lawsuit against OpenAI, led by Sam Altman, and Microsoft, under the leadership of Satya Nadella, accusing them of copyright infringement. The legal action claims that OpenAI and Microsoft's large language models (LLMs), including those behind ChatGPT and Copilot, are capable of generating content that reproduces Times' material verbatim, closely summarizes it, and imitates its expressive style.
The lawsuit alleges that this activity undermines the relationship between The Times and its readers, leading to a loss of subscription, licensing, advertising, and affiliate revenue. It contends that OpenAI and Microsoft are leveraging The Times' content without proper compensation to develop products that substitute for and divert audiences away from The Times.
Filed in the Federal District Court in Manhattan, the lawsuit claims that millions of articles from The Times were utilized to train automated chatbots, which now compete with the news outlet as a reliable information source. The complaint asserts that the actions of Microsoft and OpenAI pose a threat to high-quality journalism by undermining news outlets' ability to protect and monetize their content.
Both Microsoft and OpenAI have not yet provided comments on the lawsuit. The legal complaint accuses the companies of attempting to benefit from The Times' substantial investment in journalism without permission or payment through products like Microsoft's Bing Chat (now rebranded as 'Copilot') and OpenAI's ChatGPT.
The New York Times is seeking legal remedies for copyright infringement, urging that the companies be held accountable for "billions of dollars in statutory and actual damages" for allegedly copying its works.
(With Agency Inputs)
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