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THE NEW YORK Times has sued ChatGPT-maker OpenAI and Microsoft in a US court today, alleging that the companies’ powerful AI models used millions of articles for training without permission.
Through their AI chatbots (Large Language Models), the companies “seek to free-ride on The Times’s massive investment in its journalism by using it to build substitutive products without permission or payment,” the lawsuit said.
With the suit, the New York Times chose a more confrontational approach to the sudden rise of AI chatbots, in contrast to other media groups such as Germany’s Axel Springer or the Associated Press that have entered content deals with OpenAI.
The Times, one of the most respected news organizations in the United States, is seeking damages, as well as an order that the companies stop using its content – and destroy data already harvested.
Microsoft is a major investor in OpenAI, and swiftly implemented the powers of its LLMs in its own products after the release of ChatGPT last year.
The AI models that power ChatGPT and Microsoft’s Copilot (formerly Bing) were trained for years on content available on the internet, under the assumption that it was fair to be used without need for compensation.
But the lawsuit argued that the unlawful use of the Times’ work to create artificial intelligence products threatened its ability to provide quality journalism.
“These tools were built with and continue to use independent journalism and content that is only available because we and our peers reported, edited, and fact-checked it at high cost and with considerable expertise,” a spokesperson for the Times said.
The Times did not list specific damages that it is seeking, but said the legal action “seeks to hold them responsible for the billions of dollars in statutory and actual damages that they owe for the unlawful copying and use of The Times’s uniquely valuable works”.
In July, OpenAI and The Associated Press announced a deal for the artificial intelligence company to license AP’s archive of news stories.
However, The New York Times said it has never given permission to anyone to use its content for generative AI purposes.
The lawsuit also follows what appears to be breakdowns in talks between the newspaper and the two companies.
The Times said it reached out to Microsoft and OpenAI in April to raise concerns about the use of its intellectual property and reach a resolution on the issue.
During the talks, the newspaper said it sought to “ensure it received fair value” for the use of its content, “facilitate the continuation of a healthy news ecosystem, and help develop GenAI technology in a responsible way that benefits society and supports a well-informed public”.
“These negotiations have not led to a resolution,” the lawsuit said.
The emerging AI giants are facing a wave of lawsuits over their use of internet content to build their AI systems.
Last year “Game of Thrones” author George RR Martin and other best-selling fiction writers filed a class-action lawsuit against OpenAI, accusing the startup of violating their copyrights to fuel ChatGPT.
Universal and other music publishers have sued artificial intelligence company Anthropic in a US court for using copyrighted lyrics to train its AI systems and in generating answers to user queries.
With lawsuits piling up, Microsoft and AI player Google have announced they would provide legal protection for customers sued for copyright infringement over content generated by its AI.
- © AFP 2023 with reporting from Press Association
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Fair play to her…. The country is in good hands if the future has many more young intelligent entrepreneurs and inventors like her
Dependent on a constant stream of homeless people so plenty of business if Fine Gael remain in power all right.
A new socially progressive government which will sound the death knell for the Duffily bag though.
Fantastic young lady, good for her!
Over the last few weeks I have been out and about in Dublin mainly Grafton Street & O Connell Street,I have come across homeless people that are not skagbags or alcos. But normal working people who through no fault of their own lost their jobs relationship etc. Everytime I buy them hot food tea burger etc,The last time was on O Connell Street the lad lost his job split with the partner etc. I went into Mc Donalds ordered the lad a tea told the lad serving me that It was for a homeless person. I got the tea for free I was taken aback by this never would I have thought that with McDonald’s. I know people who are technically homeless surf couching between places. Yet again the government does nothing.
Well sais.
Good job. I do similar and was surprised at first at how they will give you things for free if you tell them but not any more. I live overseas now. Homelessness is everywhere and good people exist everywhere
So great to see a positive news story about teenagers. She is a credit to get parents and school
what a wonderful young lady and a credit to her country; a shining example to other teens who might be finding it hard to carve a positive direction in life ..
This is a great innovation but it is truly tragic that it is needed. A home is not a lot to ask for.
Fair play. Great work. Inventing the things the new real Ireland needs right now.
Would love to see the men’s sheds get involved in our main urban centres..seems tailor-made for the production and distribution locally..
Hopefully some teenage inventor / entrepreneur like Emily can present a project at the next Young Scientist Exhibition at RDS outlining how Ireland can create long-term funding to kick start an affordable housing programme to meet current rising demand.
Formulating any solution to this problem seems beyond the brain capacity of those currently at the helm at Ireland Inc.
Can some people stop making political statements on a good news story. Ir becomes very boring and repetitive. Leave those comments for political stories.
Yeah, this freedom of speech thing is getting totally out of hand.
Brilliant idea from another bright your irish youngster. Just goes to show how clever us irish really are and how far we have come as a society. It’s shows that people actually do care.
Genius I would expect nothing else from a “Limerick Lady” well done Emily you should be very proud of yourself. Good Luck in the leaving cert
Encouraging to see some our culturally enriching ‘former street-drinkers from Eastern Europe’ at last making a contribution in their host country, may many more thousands of you wonderful Eastern European street drinkers bless us it with your presence here.
It’s easy but not useful to demonise the homeless.
I couldn’t believe the negative backlash in the comments on some of the stories on this sleeping bag. They were truly nasty. Saying things like ” oh a sticking plaster product to make money off the homeless”. People were saying that homelessness shouldn’t exist and this product was somehow encouraging it. No need for authorities to do anything other than give out sleeping bags. To be honest I was livid. This girl was trying to help people on the streets right now. A practical response to the very practical problems of sleeping rough. It’s not some political football or some abstract concept. I really let fly on the haters and also told them how these bags were produced. It didn’t change their minds. Seems some people in foreign shores don’t want to actually do anything to help people sleeping rough today and tonight. They want to blame and complain but nothing more. Thankfully the younger generation like Emily Duffy give me hope for the future!!!!!!!
I was homeless for quite awhile & yes David I was a scagbag. I was homeless because drugs where an alternative to putting a rope around my neck,God forbid as some would have you believe I did just rope my self up then I’m sure you would have a comment about the land my decaying body took up & the finely hand crafted rope I waisted which could have been used to tie your small mind closer to your ass as both are as valid as each other.
Exelent I love to hear stories like this and that 15 year old kid is an inspiration to us all .great stuff
Rabble rabble Enda, rabble rabble Merkel, rabble irish water.
Sums up most people on here.
Bang on
so people from eastern Europe not that bad after all
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