A group of prominent newspapers including the New York Daily News and Chicago Tribune, under the ownership of Alden Global Capital’s MediaNews Group, has initiated a lawsuit against Microsoft and OpenAI. Filed in a New York federal court, the lawsuit accuses the tech giants of misappropriating millions of articles from these newspapers to train their advanced AI systems, such as Microsoft’s Copilot and OpenAI’s ChatGPT. This legal action asserts that such use of copyrighted content was without permission and constitutes a serious breach of copyright laws.
The lawsuit underscores a growing concern among news organizations regarding the ethical use of journalistic content to train generative AI technologies, which not only reproduce copyrighted text verbatim but also generate potentially damaging false content. An example cited in the complaint includes instances where ChatGPT “hallucinated” articles falsely attributed to these newspapers, spreading misinformation like a bogus health article from the Denver Post and an unsafe product endorsement by the Chicago Tribune. These fabrications, according to the newspapers, could seriously harm their credibility and reader trust.
In addition to seeking redress for copyright infringement, the lawsuit also calls for an injunction to prevent further unauthorized use of their copyrighted materials by Microsoft and OpenAI. The newspapers are demanding unspecified monetary damages, emphasizing the need for compensation for the use of their intellectual property. This legal battle is set against a backdrop of several ongoing lawsuits involving major news outlets against Microsoft and OpenAI, signaling a broader industry pushback against the free use of copyrighted content in AI training.
The outcome of this lawsuit could have significant implications for the tech industry, particularly for companies involved in the development of AI technologies that rely on vast datasets sourced from publicly available content. It raises critical questions about the balance between innovation in AI and the protection of intellectual property rights. The case is being closely watched as it may set a precedent for how copyrighted content is treated in the age of AI, potentially reshaping the landscape of content creation, distribution, and copyright enforcement in the digital era.
