Lawsuit Filed Against Microsoft and OpenAI by Authors, Claiming Improper Utilization of Their Work in AI Training
OpenAI and its financial backer Microsoft sued two data writers in Manhattan federal court on Friday, alleging the companies misused their work to train the AI models behind the popular ChatGPT and other AI-powered services.
Authors Nicholas Basbanes and Nicholas Gage told the court in a proposed class-action lawsuit that the companies violated their copyrights by including several of their books in the data used to train OpenAI’s GPT big-language model.
Microsoft and OpenAI representatives did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the complaint.
The lawsuit follows several other fiction and nonfiction writers, from comedian Sarah Silverman to Game of Thrones writer George R.R. Martin’s lawsuit against tech companies for allegedly using their work to train artificial intelligence programs.
Last week, the New York Times also sued OpenAI and Microsoft for using the work of its editors to train AI applications.
Basbanes and Gage are both former journalists. Their lawyer, Michael Richter, said it “made sense” that the companies could use their works to “power a new billion-plus dollar industry without compensation.”
