Authors sue Nvidia for using copyrighted works in AI

Three authors have filed a lawsuit against Nvidia, alleging that the company used their copyrighted books without authorization to train its NeMo AI platform, which is responsible for powering artificial intelligence.

Brian Keene, Abdi Nazemian and Stewart O’Nan said their works were part of a dataset of about 196,640 books that helped NeMo simulate ordinary written language before they were removed in October “due to reported copyright infringement.”

In a class-action proposal filed Friday night in federal court in San Francisco, the authors said the takedown reflects an “admission” by Nvidia that it trained NeMo on the data set and thereby infringed their copyright.

They are seeking unspecified damages for the people in the United States whose copyrighted works have helped train NeMo’s so-called large language models over the past three years.

Works covered by the lawsuit include Keene’s 2008 novel “Ghost Walk,” Nazemian’s 2019 novel “Like a Love Story” and O’Nan’s 2007 novel “Last Night at the Lobster.”

Nvidia declined to comment on the matter on Sunday. Attorneys for the authors did not immediately respond to requests for additional comment Sunday.

The lawsuit draws Nvidia into a growing dispute between writers and the New York Times over generative artificial intelligence, which creates new content based on inputs such as text, images and audio.

Nvidia touts NeMo as a fast and affordable way to deploy generative AI.

Other companies sued over the technology have included OpenAI, which created the AI platform ChatGPT, and its partner Microsoft.

The rise of artificial intelligence has made Nvidia a favorite among investors.

The Santa Clara, Calif.-based chipmaker’s stock has risen nearly 600% since the end of 2022, giving Nvidia a market value of nearly $2.2 trillion.

The case is Nazemian et al v. Nvidia Corp, United States District Court, Northern District of California, No. 24-01454.