News nonprofit sues ChatGPT maker OpenAI and Microsoft for ‘exploitative’ copyright infringement
Associated PressJun 29
Nonprofit Suing OpenAI, Microsoft Over Alleged Copyright Infringement
Above: OpenAI CEO Sam Altman speaks November 16, 2023 in San Francisco. Image copyright: Justin Sullivan/Staff/Getty Images News via Getty Images
The Facts
On Thursday, the Center for Investigative Reporting (CIR), the nonprofit that publishes Mother Jones and Reveal, announced a lawsuit against ChatGPT maker OpenAI and Microsoft over alleged copyright infringement on their AI platforms.
Filed in a federal court in Manhattan, the case accuses OpenAI of exploiting copyrighted content without permission and without offering compensation at the expense of the organization's journalism.
The Spin
Narrative A
The news publishing industry is under siege from companies like OpenAI, and nonprofits like CIR must fight back — even if that means bringing lawsuits. OpenAI knows it should be compensating publishers because it has signed licensing deals with several of them to obtain permission to use their content. OpenAI must be stopped from scraping content that it's not going to pay for.
Narrative B
If generative AI models are going to be successful in improving life, they're going to need a large amount of data. However, no one is arguing that copying works word-for-word is allowed — just as great authors often read and base their work on others' published books, AI bots read, digest, and transform content they find online. An opt-out tool is currently in the works for those who don't want certain pieces of content to be part of the teaching data.