The New York Times is suing Microsoft Corp and OpenAI Inc for using its content to help develop artificial intelligence (AI) services, in a sign of the increasingly fraught relationship between the media and a technology that could upend the news industry.
The technology firms rely on millions of copyrighted articles to train chatbots such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT and other AI features, allegedly causing billions of US dollars in statutory and actual damages, according to a lawsuit filed in New York on Wednesday.
The New York Times did not specify its monetary demands.
Photo: EPA-EFE
AI TRAINING
OpenAI has faced criticism for scraping text widely from the Web to train its popular chatbot since it debuted a year ago. While it has been sued by prominent authors, this is the first challenge to its practices by a major media organization.
The start-up has sought licensing deals with publishers, much like Alphabet Inc’s Google and Meta Platforms Inc’s Facebook have done.
The lawsuit says the publisher reached out to Microsoft and OpenAI in April and could not reach an amicable solution.
“We respect the rights of content creators and owners and are committed to working with them to ensure they benefit from AI technology and new revenue models,” an OpenAI spokesperson said in a statement. “Our ongoing conversations with the New York Times have been productive and moving forward constructively, so we are surprised and disappointed with this development.”
Microsoft declined to comment.
LAWSUITS
OpenAI in July signed an agreement with The Associated Press to access some of the news agency’s archives. OpenAI cut a three-year deal this month with Axel Springer SE to use the German media company’s work for an undisclosed sum.
“We’re hopeful that we will find a mutually beneficial way to work together, as we are doing with many other publishers,” the OpenAI spokesperson said.
OpenAI has been the target of multiple lawsuits from content producers complaining that their work has been improperly used for AI training. The company faces class actions from cultural figures, including comedian Sarah Silverman, Game of Thrones author George R.R. Martin and Pulitzer Prize-winning author Michael Chabon.
The cases are still in their early stages and could take years to fully resolve. A judge in San Francisco earlier this month hinted at trimming Silverman’s copyright lawsuit against OpenAI. The judge had already narrowed a similar Silverman suit against Meta.
Microsoft is OpenAI’s largest backer and has deployed the start-up’s AI tools in several of its products. In the lawsuit, the New York Times alleged that Microsoft copied the newspaper’s articles verbatim for its Bing search engine and used OpenAI’s technology to boost its value by US$1 trillion dollars.
“If Microsoft and OpenAI want to use our work for commercial purposes, the law requires that they first obtain our permission,” a New York Times spokesperson said in an e-mailed statement. “They have not done so.”
ENDEAVOR MANTA: The ship is programmed to automatically return to its designated home port and would self-destruct if seized by another party The Endeavor Manta, Taiwan’s first military-specification uncrewed surface vehicle (USV) tailor-made to operate in the Taiwan Strait in a bid to bolster the nation’s asymmetric combat capabilities made its first appearance at Kaohsiung’s Singda Harbor yesterday. Taking inspiration from Ukraine’s navy, which is using USVs to force Russia’s Black Sea fleet to take shelter within its own ports, CSBC Taiwan (台灣國際造船) established a research and development unit on USVs last year, CSBC chairman Huang Cheng-hung (黃正弘) said. With the exception of the satellite guidance system and the outboard motors — which were purchased from foreign companies that were not affiliated with Chinese-funded
PERMIT REVOKED: The influencer at a news conference said the National Immigration Agency was infringing on human rights and persecuting Chinese spouses Chinese influencer “Yaya in Taiwan” (亞亞在台灣) yesterday evening voluntarily left Taiwan, despite saying yesterday morning that she had “no intention” of leaving after her residence permit was revoked over her comments on Taiwan being “unified” with China by military force. The Ministry of the Interior yesterday had said that it could forcibly deport the influencer at midnight, but was considering taking a more flexible approach and beginning procedures this morning. The influencer, whose given name is Liu Zhenya (劉振亞), departed on a 8:45pm flight from Taipei International Airport (Songshan airport) to Fuzhou, China. Liu held a news conference at the airport at 7pm,
Authorities yesterday elaborated on the rules governing Employment Gold Cards after a US cardholder was barred from entering Taiwan for six years after working without a permit during a 2023 visit. American YouTuber LeLe Farley was barred after already being approved for an Employment Gold Card, he said in a video published on his channel on Saturday. Farley, who has more than 420,000 subscribers on his YouTube channel, was approved for his Gold Card last month, but was told at a check-in counter at the Los Angeles International Airport that he could not enter Taiwan. That was because he previously participated in two
SECURITY RISK: If there is a conflict between China and Taiwan, ‘there would likely be significant consequences to global economic and security interests,’ it said China remains the top military and cyber threat to the US and continues to make progress on capabilities to seize Taiwan, a report by US intelligence agencies said on Tuesday. The report provides an overview of the “collective insights” of top US intelligence agencies about the security threats to the US posed by foreign nations and criminal organizations. In its Annual Threat Assessment, the agencies divided threats facing the US into two broad categories, “nonstate transnational criminals and terrorists” and “major state actors,” with China, Russia, Iran and North Korea named. Of those countries, “China presents the most comprehensive and robust military threat
RSS