Two nonfiction authors in the U.S. have dragged OpenAI and Microsoft to court alleging that the companies used their work to train the artificial intelligence models behind the popular chatbot ChatGPT and other AI-based services.
The lawsuit is coming barely two weeks after the New York Times sued both companies for unauthorized use of their published works to train their artificial intelligence tool. In the new lawsuit filed on Friday in Manhattan federal court the writers, Nicholas Basbanes and Nicholas Gage told the court that the companies infringed their copyrights by including several of their books as part of the data used to train OpenAI’s GPT large language model.
What the authors are saying
In the complaints, the authors alleged that OpanAI and Microsoft violated their copyrights and threatened their existence by using their works to train their AI tools without permission or payment.
- “The Defendants copied Plaintiffs’ work to build a massive commercial enterprise that is now valued at billions of dollars. This commercial enterprise, commonly known as “AI” or “Artificial Intelligence,” relies on “large language models” or “LLMs.”
- “These LLMs generate human-like responses to prompts submitted by users and work by ingesting massive amounts of written material. The higher the quality of the ingested written materials, the higher the quality of the LLM’s responses to users’ prompts. Thus, to obtain that high-quality written material, Defendants engaged in a massive and deliberate theft of copyrighted works created by writers like Mr. Basbanes and Mr. Gage.
- “Professional writers like Mr. Basbanes and Mr. Gage have limited capital to fund their research. They typically self-fund their projects, which are often supplemented by advances on royalties from prospective publishers, and those advances are then deducted from any future earnings their books may generate.
- “Yet, in stark contrast, Defendants, with ready access to billions in capital, simply stole Plaintiffs’ copyrighted works to build another billion+ dollar commercial industry. It is outrageous,” the authors claimed in their filing.
Reliefs being sought
Among several other reliefs, the authors are seeking an injunction prohibiting Defendants from infringing their and class members’ copyrights, including without limitation enjoining Defendants from using Plaintiffs’ and class members’ copyrighted works in “training” Defendants’ large language models without express authorization. They are also seeking an award of actual damages to Plaintiffs and class members. Other prayers include:
- “An award of Defendants’ additional profits attributable to infringement to Plaintiffs and class members;
- “An award of statutory damages up to $150,000 per infringed work to Plaintiffs and class members, in the alternative to actual damages and profits, at Plaintiffs election before final judgment.”
What you should know
Although the popular chatbot, ChatGPT, is owned by OpenAI, Microsoft is part owner through its investments. Microsoft has committed $13 billion to OpenAI and has incorporated the company’s technology into its Bing search engine.
OpenAI is now valued by investors at more than $80 billion and the company is reported to be in early discussions to raise a fresh round of funding at a valuation at or above $100 billion.
