Canada's largest media outlets have filed a lawsuit against OpenAI, the maker of artificial intelligence chatbot ChatGPT. The lawsuit alleges the company is illegally using news reports to train its software. It is the first such case filed in Canada.
News organizations such as the Toronto Star, Metroland Media, Postmedia, The Globe and Mail, The Canadian Press and the CBC participated in the case.
The news agencies said in a joint statement, 'Journalism works in the public interest. If OpenAI uses another company's journalism for their own commercial gain, that is not legal. It is illegal.'
OpenAI, on the other hand, says of their models that they are trained using 'commonly available data'.
In a statement to the BBC, the company said the software is 'based on fair use and relevant international copyright principles, which are fair to content creators and support innovation. The company works closely with news publishers, including displaying their content, recognizing it, and adding their content and links to ChatGPT searches. They are also given the option to simply opt-out of content if they wish.
OpenAI ignored safeguards, such as paywalls or copyright disclaimers, which were designed to prevent unauthorized copying of content, the Canadian Media Alliance said in an 84-page lawsuit document.
“OpenAI routinely violates copyright and online terms of use,” the companies said. Steals large amounts of content from Canadian media, helping to improve their products such as ChatGPT.'
The group is made up of publishers of Canada's top newspapers. The group is demanding that OpenAI be fined 20,000 Canadian dollars for each article. They alleged that the articles were being used illegally to train ChatGPT. This compensation can reach billions of dollars.
The news organizations are also seeking a ruling that would compel the company to share profits earned from the use of their articles. In addition, OpenAI is demanding an injunction against future use of their articles.
Last year, the New York Times and other publishers filed a similar lawsuit in the United States. Last April, lawyers for the New York Times accused OpenAI of deleting evidence needed for prosecution.
In another case, the Authors Guild and a group of writers such as John Grisham also alleged copyright infringement.
In a report earlier this week, the Wall Street Journal reported that OpenAI's market value reached C$219 billion after the company raised its latest investment.
References: BBC
