The media landscape is heating up as Raw Story, Alternet, and The Intercept have taken legal action against OpenAI for copyright infringement. The online publications filed separate lawsuits in a New York federal court, alleging that the ChatGPT creator used copyrighted works by journalists to train its chatbot without proper attribution.
The companies are seeking damages of at least $2,500 per violation and are demanding that OpenAI remove all copyrighted articles from its data training sets. The Intercept also sued Microsoft, a partner of OpenAI, for developing its own chatbot called Bing using the same copyrighted information.
John Byrne, the chief executive of Raw Story, expressed the need for news organizations to stand up against Big Tech’s exploitation of their work. He stated, “Big Tech has decimated journalism. It’s time that publishers take a stand.”
OpenAI and Microsoft have not yet responded to the allegations, but in the past, they have expressed a desire to collaborate with publishers to ensure fair compensation for their work. The lawsuits come on the heels of a similar legal battle initiated by The New York Times against OpenAI and Microsoft in December.
Generative A.I. technology has raised concerns about the use of copyrighted material to train algorithms and its potential to recreate artistic performances. The issue has sparked lawsuits from authors, actors, and writers who fear their work is being exploited without proper compensation.
The digital-only nature of the publications involved in the lawsuits intensifies the stakes, as they argue that the Digital Millennium Copyright Act protects their rights to control the use of their content. Raw Story’s publisher, Roxanne Cooper, emphasized the importance of recognizing the efforts of human journalists and ensuring that their work is not exploited without permission.
As the legal battle unfolds, the outcome could have far-reaching implications for the relationship between media outlets and tech giants in the digital age. Stay tuned for updates on this developing story.
