The companies collaborated to develop a complex supercomputing system dedicated to housing and reproducing copies of the training dataset, including Times-owned content.
The heart of the matter lies in the AI chatbots developed by these companies, which, according to the lawsuit, aim to leverage The Times’ substantial journalism investment to build substitutive products without permission or payment.
Copyright issues have become a focal point in the generative AI sector, with publishers, musicians, and artists increasingly seeking legal action to ensure compensation for the use of their content in AI technologies.
News organizations seek damages
In contrast to media groups like Germany’s Axel Springer and the Associated Press, which have entered content deals with OpenAI, The New York Times has taken a confrontational stance.
The lawsuit suggests that if news organizations cannot protect their independent journalism, there will be a void that no AI can fill, leading to a reduction in journalism production with enormous societal costs.
