Major Canadian News Publishers have filed a lawsuit against OpenAI, addressing the unauthorized use of their news articles to train ChatGPT, an AI chatbot. With this, several other publishers including Toronto Stars, The Globe and Mail, The Canadian Press, Postmedia, and CBC joined the suit. These organizations raise the issue that Open AI is extensively using its journalistic content without any prior permission for their commercial benefits. They claim that this is a breach of the copyright, significantly questioning the sustainability of journalism with the extensive use of content in the 84-page filing placed by the Canadian Media coalition.
Open AI has not made its stand clear, but it has mentioned earlier that its AI models are trained the publicly available data. They claim that this use of data cannot be considered a breach, rather it falls under fair use. In addition to that, they mentioned that they collaboratively work with the news companies to link or use their content and grant them opportunities to opt-out. However, the claim of Open AI has been subject to several criticisms. They raise concerns about not mentioning the financial harm and not getting benefits like attributions or title display on the content delivered on their AI platforms.
The content creators allegedly mention that Open AI should acknowledge and pay for the content used by the AI model to outsource data, develop their system, and deliver it to its large-scale audiences. This lawsuit can be considered an extension of similar issues filed in other regions like the United States and Europe for not giving monetary compensation or credits to content creators, journalists, and others related to the field.
This case addresses the issue of journalism in the modern age, where both publishers and writers are stressed by competition from technological giants like Google, Facebook, and AI, resulting in a significant reduction in revenue generation. This, along with the quick adoption of technology has put traditional news publishers at a disadvantage of not being able to generate revenue and tailor-cut search results.
Quick technological advancement by the AI models allows them to process large chunks of data by analyzing and using the texts of these publishers and processing them to generate quick summaries, analyses, or even news articles. This allows AI services to bypass the quality and quantity of data produced per second. Moreover, its user-friendly regulations have sparked fears that such high-end technological advancements may stunt the growth and existence of traditional publishers.
Legal And Regulatory Concerns
The recent Canadian lawsuit against OpenAI may result in the development of regulatory measures, which are to be discussed by the court. However, experts suggest that the future of the lawsuit depends on the court’s view on whether the data used by AI can be considered as a breach of copyright or as material for transformative use.
If successful, AI companies should follow new guidelines and negotiate licensing agreements with publishers and creators. This will help traditional publishers gain back their prominence as reporters with an appreciable increase in the overall revenue generated. They also expect compensation for using copyrighted materials without legal authorization. Conversely, if the ruling comes out to be in favor of OpenAI, it may result in the continuation of data extraction from traditional sources with a chance of monopolistic competition in content generation.
This lawsuit against Open AI will influence other players in the industry such as Google, Meta, Gemini, and DeepMind, all of which depend on the dataset of third-party sources. Some publishers argue that licensing agreements like the Associated Press Deal may resolve these concerns, whereas others argue that legal intervention is essential to ensure accountability, that too if the ruling comes in favor.
Read more: OpenAI CEO Confirms No GPT-5 In 2024 Due To GPT-0.1 Delays And Other Computational Issues.
Setting A Precedent For AI And Copyright Law
The result of the lawsuit is expected to decide the the relationship of AI with traditional publication media with the integration of copyright regulations. The court weighs the complexities of applying copyright and intellectual property rights to AI technology to bring new regulations and set boundaries to limit data use. The legal battle is not just about using data or asking for compensation, it shapes the future of AI, how it will outsource data, and its impact on traditional publishers.
