New York Times Sues OpenAI

The New York Times is suing OpenAI and Microsoft for copyright infringemnet

Key claims in the lawsuit:Unauthorized use of millions of articles: The Times alleges that OpenAI used millions of its articles without permission to train its AI models, and that Microsoft used those models in its products.

Reproduction of Wirecutter reviews: The lawsuit claims that Wirecutter reviews, a product review site owned by The Times, were reproduced verbatim in AI-generated text, with affiliate links removed. This allegedly creates a competing product that undercuts The Times' revenue.

Mimicking of expressive style: The Times argues that GenAI, Microsoft's AI model, mimics the newspaper's distinctive expressive style, leading to trademark dilution.

Infringement on trademark and value: The lawsuit contends that the value of the technology created by OpenAI and Microsoft is worth trillions of dollars to Microsoft and billions to OpenAI, based on their increased market capitalization. It claims that the companies have profited immensely from using The Times' content without permission or compensation.

Close summaries not transformative: The Times asserts that producing close summaries of its articles using AI is not transformative enough to qualify as fair use, given the significant investment the newspaper makes in producing original content.

Potential implications if the NYT wins:

Increased costs for LLM APIs: Language model providers may have to pay for the content they use to train their models, potentially increasing costs for users.

Restrictions on open-source LLMs: Open-source language models may face limitations in accessing and using certain datasets, potentially hindering their development.

Protection for unique content: Businesses that invest in creating unique, high-quality content may see stronger protection for their intellectual property.

Increased importance of SEO: Being a top authority on a topic may become even more crucial for businesses to gain visibility in search results, as organic reach becomes more challenging.

It's important to note that the lawsuit is still in its early stages, and the outcome is uncertain. The full implications of the case, if the NYT wins, will depend on the specific legal rulings and how they are implemented.

Labels: OpenAI