Media outlets, including CBC, sue ChatGPT creator
A group of Canadian news outlets — including CBC/Radio-Canada, Postmedia, Metroland, the Toronto Star, the Globe and Mail and the Canadian Press — has launched a joint lawsuit claiming copyright infringement against ChatGPT creator OpenAI.
The lawsuit was filed in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice on Friday morning and is looking for punitive damages from OpenAI, along with payment of any profits that the company made from using news articles from the organizations.
It’s also seeking an injunction banning OpenAI from using their news articles in the future.
The New York Times is suing OpenAI and Microsoft, accusing them of using millions of the newspaper’s articles without permission to help train artificial intelligence technologies.
In a joint statement, the companies wrote that “OpenAI is capitalizing and profiting from the use of this content, without getting permission or compensating content owners,” and claim that OpenAI “regularly breaches copyright” by using content from Canadian media outlets for products such as ChatGPT.
When asked if CBC would stop its employees from using tools such as ChatGPT as a result of the lawsuit, a spokesperson for the Crown corporation declined to answer and referred to the statement from the journalistic outlets.
Canadian action comes 11 months after U.S. lawsuit
In a statement emailed to CBC News, an OpenAI spokesperson said the company’s models are trained on data that is publicly available and said the company is “grounded” in international copyright principles.
“We collaborate closely with news publishers, including in the display, attribution and links to their content in ChatGPT search, and offer them easy ways to opt out should they so desire,” wrote OpenAI.
In the Canadian lawsuit, the domestic media outlets claim that OpenAI has been “well aware of its obligations to obtain a valid licence” to use their content.
In late December 2023, the New York Times filed suit against the tech company. At that time, OpenAI said it respected the rights of content creators and owners, and was committed to working with them to ensure they benefit from AI technology and new revenue models.
That lawsuit is still ongoing, with the Times claiming in April that OpenAI had potentially erased search results that the newspaper may need for its case.
OpenAI’s value has been estimated at $157 billion US in recent months.
Is it just reading an article if AI does it?
Media and technology researcher Richard Lachman says companies such as OpenAI claim it’s not off-base to use publicly available news articles to train an artificial intelligence system.
“The argument of the companies is, ‘We’re essentially reading the news that was on a public website. That’s not…
Read More: Media outlets, including CBC, sue ChatGPT creator