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Several major publishers, including Politico and Vox, have filed a lawsuit against AI startup Cohere, accusing the company of copyright and trademark infringement.

According to the Wall Street Journal, the lawsuit alleges that Cohere improperly used over 4,000 copyrighted works to train its AI model and distributed large portions of articles without proper attribution.

This legal action is the latest in an ongoing battle between content creators and AI companies that allegedly use their intellectual property without permission.

Copyright and Trademark Infringement Claims

The publishers claim that Cohere’s AI system has engaged in deceptive practices, providing users with articles that appear to be sourced from major publishers but contain inaccurate or “hallucinated” information. 

The lawsuit cites an example where an AI-generated summary of a Guardian article about Hamas’s attack on the Nova music festival in Israel was falsely conflated with a 2020 shooting in Nova Scotia, Canada.

“Rather than create their own content, they’re stealing ours to compete with us without our permission, without compensation, and undermining our very business that feeds their machines in the first place,” said Danielle Coffey, CEO of the News Media Alliance, which organized the lawsuit. “That’s theft.”

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The publishers are demanding damages up to $150,000 per infringement under the Copyright Act and are also pushing for legal precedents that would regulate the use of journalism in AI training and real-time applications. 

Industry-Wide Implications

Pam Wasserstein, president of Vox Media, stated that the goal is to “establish the terms of the playing field for licensed use of journalism for AI, including for training and also real-time uses.”

Cohere has denied the allegations, issuing a statement saying, "We stand by our practices for responsibly training enterprise AI. We have long prioritized controls that mitigate the risk of IP infringement and respect the rights of holders."

The company dismissed the lawsuit as "misguided and frivolous" and expects a favorable resolution.

This case follows similar lawsuits against AI companies. The New York Times sued OpenAI in 2023 for copyright infringement, while News Corp filed a case against Perplexity in October. Additionally, a judge recently ruled in favor of Reuters in its lawsuit against AI company Ross Intelligence.

About Cohere

Cohere, a Canadian technology company founded in 2019, specializes in AI software development and chatbot services for businesses. It has received venture capital funding from major investors, including Index Ventures, NVIDIA, and Salesforce. The company is currently valued at $5 billion.