The New York Times vs. Microsoft and OpenAI – Why they're suing tech giants over ChatGPT

The New York Times has filed a criminal complaint against OpenAI and Microsoft, alleging that they misused the newspaper's intellectual property to train artificial intelligence models such as ChatGPT.

A spokeswoman for the American newspaper told AFP: “As the lawsuit makes clear, Microsoft and OpenAI used our work to develop and market their own artificial intelligence products without the Times’s permission,” and this is indeed a violation of copyright in terms of content and journalistic work. “.

“New York Times”: Losses amount to billions of dollars

According to the lawsuit, the newspaper estimates the damage it sustained at “several billion dollars.”

The newspaper added, “The defendants' genetic artificial intelligence relied on massive learning models created by copying and using millions of copyrighted Times articles.”

Microsoft and OpenAI also gave “the contents of the Times special importance in building their learning model, underscoring a preference that recognizes the value of this work.”

The newspaper also explains that it has so far tried unsuccessfully to negotiate with the two companies in order to “obtain appropriate compensation for the use of its contents.”

“Copyright laws protect our journalism. If Microsoft and OpenAI want to use our work for commercial purposes, they must by law ask for permission first. They have not,” the spokeswoman insisted.

When contacted by AFP, neither Microsoft nor OpenAI had an immediate comment.

In mid-December, OpenAI reached a financial agreement with the German Axel Springer Group, publisher of the popular newspaper Bild, to provide the group's content for answers to questions asked by ChatGPT users.

Under the terms of this partnership, which the two representatives present as unprecedented, users who ask a question on ChatGPT will receive a response to summaries of articles published by Axel Springer Group publications, namely Politico, Business Insider, and the newspapers Bild and Entbar.

Since the launch of ChatGPT a year ago, Silicon Valley giants have been engaged in a furious race for genetic AI. This allows text, images or lines of code equivalent to those produced by humans to be obtained through a simple search in the current language, thanks to the amount of content available on the Internet.

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