OpenAI, in response, stated that its practices are covered under fair use and that it collaborates closely with news publishers, offering them easy ways to opt out. The company also clarified that its new search engine, built into ChatGPT, does not use data for crawling or training its models. However, the Canadian plaintiffs argue that while journalism is in the public interest, OpenAI using their journalism for commercial gain is illegal.
Key takeaways:
- A coalition of Canadian news outlets, including CBC/Radio-Canada, Postmedia, Metroland, the Toronto Star, the Globe and Mail and The Canadian Press, have sued OpenAI for copyright infringement.
- The lawsuit accuses OpenAI of profiting from the unauthorized use of their content for ChatGPT and seeks punitive damages, profits made from using their news articles, and a ban on further use of their content.
- OpenAI has defended its practices, stating that its models are trained on publicly available data, grounded in fair use and related international copyright principles, and that it offers easy ways for news publishers to opt-out.
- The Canadian news outlets join a growing list of companies, individuals, and organizations that have sued OpenAI for unauthorized training on their work, including The New York Times, The Intercept, Raw Story, a group of nonfiction authors and comedian Sarah Silverman.