The large language models (LLM) developed by Microsoft and OpenAI have led to these two companies being sued. The New York Times has filed a lawsuit claiming that the artificial intelligence models developed by Microsoft Copilot and ChatGPT are guilty of copyright infringement.
Filed today, the complaint claims that Microsoft and OpenAI used “millions” of his articles without authorization to train their LLMs. The publication also claims that chatbots from Microsoft and OpenAI “directly compete with Times content.”
Additionally, the lawsuit mentions that ChatGPT and Copilot “may generate results that recite the Times' content verbatim, summarize it in detail, and reproduce its expressive style.”
She adds that this practice has been “extremely lucrative” for Microsoft and OpenAI, increasing Microsoft's market capitalization by “$1 trillion” and OpenAI's valuation by “$90 billion.”
While this may have been lucrative for tech companies, the Times says these chatbots “threaten high-quality journalism” by affecting media outlets' ability to monetize their content. “Defendants seek to profit from the Times’ enormous investment in its journalism,” the lawsuit reads.
The publication claims it attempted to negotiate a deal with both parties “to ensure it received fair value for the use of its content,” but the negotiations failed. Now, the Times is apparently seeking billions of dollars in legal and actual damages due to alleged copying of its work by Microsoft and OpenAI.