Dictionaries Sue OpenAI for 'Massive' Copyright Infringement, Claim ChatGPT Hurts Publishers
Britannica and Merriam-Webster have filed a lawsuit against OpenAI, alleging that the AI company has built its $730 billion business by infringing on their copyrighted content and starving web publishers of revenue.
Why it matters
This lawsuit highlights the growing tensions between AI companies and content creators/publishers, as AI models like ChatGPT become more advanced at absorbing and summarizing online information.
Key Points
- 1Britannica and Merriam-Webster accuse OpenAI of using their researched and fact-checked content to train its large language models like ChatGPT
- 2The lawsuit claims ChatGPT absorbs publishers' content and delivers polished answers, instead of sending users to their websites
- 3The publishers allege this cannibalizes the traffic and ad revenue they depend on to survive
- 4The case raises questions about what constitutes public knowledge and what information online should be off-limits for AI use
Details
The lawsuit filed by Britannica and Merriam-Webster in the Southern District of New York alleges that OpenAI has built its $730 billion company by infringing on the copyrighted content of the two dictionary publishers. The complaint states that ChatGPT, OpenAI's popular language model, 'starves web publishers, like [the] Plaintiffs, of revenue'. Where a traditional search engine would send users to a publisher's website, the lawsuit claims ChatGPT instead absorbs the content and delivers a polished answer, depriving the publishers of traffic and ad revenue they rely on. The publishers also allege that OpenAI fed its large language models with the researched and fact-checked work of the companies' hundreds of human writers and editors. This case is the latest in a series of lawsuits accusing AI firms of data theft, raising complex questions about what constitutes public knowledge and what information online should be off-limits for AI training and use.
No comments yet
Be the first to comment