A legal battle has begun between a group of nonfiction authors and the U.S.-based tech giant Microsoft, as well as artificial intelligence (AI) company OpenAI. The authors are alleging that their work was utilized by the companies to train an AI tool called ChatGPT, without obtaining proper consent.
Lead plaintiff, Julian Sancton, has emphasized that he and countless other nonfiction authors were not compensated for the unauthorized use of their work. The lawsuit, filed in the Manhattan federal court, highlights the financial success achieved by Microsoft and OpenAI through the commercialization of their AI products, allegedly based on copied nonfiction authorship.
The complaint argues that the AI platform developed by OpenAI and Microsoft is founded on what the authors describe as “the rampant theft of copyrighted works,” from which the companies have derived significant financial gain.
Furthermore, the lawsuit alleges that both companies collaborated closely to create and implement AI-powered products, particularly the ChatGPT chatbot, which is designed to produce text responses mirroring human speech.
OpenAI employees recently faced a series of internal conflicts, leading to the reinstatement of Sam Altman, co-founder and CEO, who had previously been ousted following an internal investigation. This controversy resulted in over 600 OpenAI employees threatening to join Altman at Microsoft if the company’s current board of directors did not step down.
OpenAI introduced ChatGPT, an AI-powered chatbot celebrated for its sophisticated humanlike responses. The popularity of this chatbot has prompted other major tech companies, such as Microsoft, to announce similar AI-based services this year.
The lawsuit seeks damages for the infringement of copyrighted works, along with injunctive relief, on behalf of nonfiction authors who have been affected by the unauthorized use of their content.
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