The lawsuit is the first of its kind from a major U.S. media organization and comes amid other similar suits from writers and novelists. The defendants argue that their use of copyrighted works to train AI products amounts to "fair use". The Times argues that the infringements threaten high-quality journalism by reducing the need for readers to visit its website, thereby potentially affecting advertising and subscription revenue.
Key takeaways:
- The New York Times has sued OpenAI and Microsoft, accusing them of using millions of its articles without permission to train chatbots.
- The newspaper is not seeking a specific amount of damages, but estimated damages in the "billions of dollars" and wants the companies to destroy chatbot models and training sets that incorporate its material.
- Other writers and novelists including David Baldacci, Jonathan Franzen, John Grisham and Scott Turow have also sued OpenAI and Microsoft, claiming that AI systems might have co-opted tens of thousands of their books.
- The Times' lawsuit cited instances where OpenAI and Microsoft chatbots gave users near-verbatim excerpts of its articles, which it claims threatens high-quality journalism by reducing readers’ perceived need to visit its website, reducing traffic and potentially cutting into advertising and subscription revenue.