With this lawsuit, the NYT joins the ranks of influential organizations, authors and even artists around the world seeking legal help against AI companies that they say have illegally exploited their intellectual property.
New York Times headquarters. Photo: Reuters
As is well known, AI models like OpenAI's ChatGPT have used online information (including copyrighted content) to answer questions for users, thereby earning huge profits.
According to the complaint filed on December 27, the NYT said it had repeatedly approached the two companies about a commercial agreement that would allow use of their content in exchange for payments, but had not resulted in a resolution.
And in the lawsuit, the NYT is seeking “billions of dollars” in damages from the two companies. In a statement, an OpenAI spokesperson wrote that the company was “surprised and disappointed” by the lawsuit and hoped it could still find a mutually beneficial way to work with the Times.
The New York Times' lawsuit goes further than previous lawsuits, citing several examples of ChatGPT providing responses that closely resembled their articles and provided inaccurate information, and blaming the press for this information.
It can be said that the NYT and other newspapers have every reason to pursue the big money from the technology giants, in the context that traditional newspapers are having difficulty finding a foothold, even many big newspapers face the risk of bankruptcy.
Lawsuits like these could make companies like OpenAI more cautious about what they think they have a right to take from the internet without paying for it. And for the NYT, it could even be an incentive to strike a better deal with the tech giants in the future.
Recently, Axel Springer news agency also reached an agreement with OpenAI, in which the ChatGPT manufacturer agreed to pay tens of millions of euros to the media group that owns major news sites such as Politico and Business Insider, thereby allowing them to use their articles to build AI systems.
Previously, a 2021 Australian press law forced Google and Meta to share a portion of advertising revenue with news publishers. However, with AI “sucking” news stories much more thoroughly than traditional social networks and sharing platforms, the problem is becoming even more serious for newspapers.
Therefore, the New York Times lawsuit or Axel Springer's settlement is considered a short-term solution for the press to temporarily prevent "appropriation" from AI companies and seek additional revenue, before moving towards a more comprehensive and sustainable solution.
Hoang Hai (according to NYT, Reuters, FT)
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