Silke Mayr A group of major Canadian news outlets is suing OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT. The outlets claim that OpenAI used their news articles to train its AI without permission.
News organizations including the Toronto Star, CBC, Postmedia, and others have filed the lawsuit. It is reportedly the first of its kind in Canada. The media companies argue that OpenAI is using their content for commercial gain without compensation.
Allegations of Copyright Violations
The coalition states that journalism serves the public interest, but OpenAI’s actions do not. The media outlets claim that OpenAI’s use of their articles is illegal. In a joint statement, they said, “It’s illegal for OpenAI to use other companies’ journalism for their own profit.”
OpenAI maintains that its AI models are trained on publicly available data. The company claims its practices align with fair use and copyright principles. OpenAI also states that it collaborates with news publishers and offers them options to opt out.
The lawsuit accuses OpenAI of ignoring copyright safeguards such as paywalls. The media organizations claim that OpenAI has scraped large amounts of content from Canadian media without authorization. They argue this violates copyright and online terms of use.
The media group is seeking damages of C$20,000 per article used in the training. This could amount to billions of dollars in total compensation. They are also requesting that OpenAI share any profits made from using their content and stop using it in the future.
While this lawsuit is a first for Canadian publishers, similar actions have occurred in the U.S. Last year, The New York Times filed a lawsuit against OpenAI. The lawsuit accused OpenAI of erasing evidence needed for the case. The Authors Guild and famous authors, including John Grisham, have also filed lawsuits over similar copyright claims.
Recently, OpenAI was valued at C$219 billion following a new round of investment funding.