New York Times lawsuit: Massive claims against Microsoft & OpenAI

The New York Times, a prominent US news organisation, has taken legal action against OpenAI, the owner of ChatGPT, alleging copyright infringement in the training of the language model system.

This lawsuit, which also involves Microsoft as a defendant, contends that both companies should be held accountable for what the Times claims amounts to "billions of dollars" in damages.

Large language models like ChatGPT learn by analysing extensive datasets, frequently compiled from various online sources. The lawsuit asserts that millions of articles from the New York Times were allegedly used without authorisation to enhance the capabilities of ChatGPT. As a result, the system is purportedly competing with the newspaper as a trusted information source.

The lawsuit outlines instances where ChatGPT reportedly produces "verbatim excerpts" from New York Times articles when asked about current events. These excerpts, according to the lawsuit, are behind a paywall and inaccessible without a subscription. This situation allegedly allows readers to access New York Times content without proper compensation, impacting the newspaper's subscription revenue and advertising clicks from website visitors.

Furthermore, the lawsuit points out instances with the Bing search engine, powered in part by ChatGPT, displaying results taken from New York Times-owned websites without proper article links or referral mechanisms that generate revenue.

Microsoft, having invested over $10 billion in OpenAI, is also named in the lawsuit.

The legal action, filed in a Manhattan federal court on Wednesday, details how the New York Times previously sought an amicable resolution with Microsoft and OpenAI in April, but the attempt was reportedly unsuccessful.