OpenAI, Microsoft Accused Of Copyright Infringement In AI Training By Author Julian Sancton

Artificial intelligence giant OpenAI and technology behemoth Microsoft Corporation MSFT are on the receiving end of a new lawsuit. The suit, filed by author and Hollywood Reporter editor Julian Sancton, alleged that the two companies had unlawfully used non-fiction authors’ work to train their AI systems.

What Happened: OpenAI and Microsoft have been charged with duplicating tens of thousands of non-fiction books without obtaining the necessary permissions. The content was then allegedly used to teach large language models how to respond to human text prompts, reported Reuters. 

Sancton’s lawsuit is the first to implicate Microsoft, a significant investor in OpenAI that has integrated OpenAI’s systems into its own products. He is seeking an unspecified amount in damages and a court order to stop the alleged infringement. 

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Sancton’s attorney, Justin Nelson, criticized the companies for refusing to compensate non-fiction authors while profiting from their AI platform. 

He also accused OpenAI’s foundation of being primarily built on the unauthorized use of copyrighted materials.

Per the lawsuit, OpenAI used non-fiction books, including Sancton’s “Madhouse at the End of the Earth: The Belgica’s Journey into the Dark Antarctic Night,” to train its GPT large language models. 

OpenAI and Microsoft have previously faced similar allegations, including from authors John Grisham, George R.R. Martin, and Jonathan Franzen, but have denied these claims.

Why It Matters: This is not the first time OpenAI has been accused of copyright infringement. 

Earlier this year, comedian Sarah Silverman and other authors claimed that OpenAI had used their works without permission to train its ChatGPT AI model. 

Likewise, in October this year, AI startup Anthropic was sued by Universal Music Group, Concord, and ABKCO for allegedly using their songs without permission to generate near-identical copies of lyrics via their AI model, Calude. 

Photo Courtesy: Ascannio On Shutterstock.com

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This content was partially produced with the help of Benzinga Neuro and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors.