Two nonfiction writers filed a lawsuit against OpenAI and its financial supporter Microsoft (MSFT.O) on Friday in Manhattan federal court. They claim that the firms used their work to train the artificial intelligence models that underpin ChatGPT and other AI-based services.
In a proposed class action, authors Nicholas Basbanes and Nicholas Gage testified before the court that the firms violated their copyrights by utilizing several of their works as training material for OpenAI’s GPT big language model.
Representatives of Microsoft and OpenAI did not immediately respond to requests for comments on the lawsuit.
In response to tech corporations using their work to train AI algorithms, fiction and nonfiction writers, including comedian Sarah Silverman and “Game of Thrones” author George R.R. Martin, have launched various lawsuits.
Last week, the New York Times filed lawsuits against Microsoft and OpenAI for using its journalists’ work to train AI programs.
Gage and Basbanes were both once journalists. Michael Richter, the attorney for the corporations, called it “outrageous” that the works might be used to “power a new billion-dollar-plus industry without any compensation.”
