Renowned authors, including George R.R. Martin, John Grisham, and Jodi Picoult, have initiated a lawsuit against OpenAI, the developer of ChatGPT, citing copyright infringement.
Furthermore, the lawsuit alleges that OpenAI used their literary works without authorization to train ChatGPT, characterizing OpenAI’s actions as “systematic theft on a mass scale.” The Authors Guild, representing 17 prominent writers, filed the suit in the Southern District of New York, adding to OpenAI’s legal challenges concerning data collection and usage for ChatGPT.
Additionally, the lawsuit contends that ChatGPT and the underlying large language models (LLMs) pose a significant threat to authors’ livelihoods, as their works were used for training without their consent.
The complaint alleges that ChatGPT has been employed to generate low-quality ebooks, mimicking authors and undermining human-authored books. The suit explicitly mentions George R.R. Martin, accusing a programmer named Liam Swayne of utilizing ChatGPT to “write” sequels to Martin’s acclaimed series, A Song of Ice and Fire.
The Authors Guild and the writers are seeking legal action to prohibit OpenAI from incorporating copyrighted materials in LLMs without explicit authorization, alongside claims for damages, potentially reaching up to $150,000 per infringed work.
The authors argue that OpenAI has publicly admitted to reproducing copyrighted works during LLM training, asserting that such reproduction is crucial for product quality. This lawsuit sheds light on concerns within the literary community regarding the use of AI-generated content, as it raises questions about authorship and intellectual property rights.
