Indian media files lawsuit against ChatGPT
Top Indian news outlets join ANI’s lawsuit against OpenAI, accusing ChatGPT of using copyrighted material without permission as AI regulation debate grows.
[:en]Photo: BBC[:]
Top Indian news organizations are seeking to join a lawsuit against OpenAI, the US startup behind ChatGPT, for allegedly using their content without permission. The news organizations include some of India’s oldest publications, including The Indian Express, The Hindu, The India Today group, NDTV, owned by billionaire Gautam Adani, and more than a dozen others, reported by BBC.
OpenAI denies the allegations and told the BBC that it uses publicly available data that is in line with widely accepted legal precedents. On Wednesday, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman was in Delhi to discuss India’s plan for a low-cost AI ecosystem with IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnau. He believes India should be one of the leaders in the AI revolution. He said his previous comments in 2023, when he said it would be difficult for Indian companies to compete, were taken out of context.
Asian News International accuses ChatGPT
The lawsuit filed against OpenAI in November by Asian News International (ANI), India’s largest news agency, is the first of its kind in India. ANI has accused ChatGPT of illegally using copyrighted material, which OpenAI denies, and is seeking $230,000 in damages. The case is significant for ChatGPT given its expansion plans in the country. According to a survey, India already has ChatGPT’s largest user base.
Chatbots like ChatGPT are trained on massive datasets collected by crawling the web. Content generated by nearly 450 news channels and 17,000 newspapers in India has huge potential for this. However, there is no clarity on what material ChatGPT can legally collect and use for this purpose.
The New York Times: lawsuit
OpenAI faces at least a dozen lawsuits around the world, filed by publishers, artists, and news organizations that accuse ChatGPT of using their content without permission. The most prominent of these was filed by The New York Times in December 2023, in which the newspaper sought “billions of dollars” in damages from OpenAI and Microsoft, its sponsor.
A ruling in favor of ANI could trigger further lawsuits and would open the door for AI companies to enter into licensing agreements with content creators, something some companies have already begun to do. But a ruling in favor of OpenAI would lead to greater freedom to use copyrighted data to train AI models.
