Microsoft Confronts a Landmark Copyright Dispute: NYT vs. GPT

The New York Times has filed a lawsuit against Microsoft and OpenAI, alleging that the companies used copyrighted material from the newspaper to train their large language models. The lawsuit seeks unspecified financial damages, an injunction to stop the use of copyrighted material, and the destruction of all models and training sets that incorporate the newspaper’s copyrighted work. The suit also raises concerns about the implications of AI for journalism and democracy. Examples cited in the lawsuit show how the AI models reproduce large chunks of text from New York Times articles, and in some cases, attribute information incorrectly. This lawsuit is seen as laying the groundwork for establishing precedents in the legal and economic aspects of artificial intelligence. OpenAI has expressed surprise and disappointment, stating that they are committed to working with content creators and owners. Microsoft has not commented on the suit yet.