Several digital news outlets, including The Intercept, Raw Story, and AlterNet, have initiated a lawsuit against OpenAI, the creator of the chatbot ChatGPT, and Microsoft, citing unauthorized use of their journalistic content for training the AI without permission, payment, or attribution. Filed in the US District Court, the case highlights a growing concern among news publishers regarding the financial and ethical implications of AI companies using copyrighted material to train their technologies. The outlets are demanding at least $2,500 in damages for each copyrighted story used.

In a related development, OpenAI has accused The New York Times of employing deceptive tactics to gather evidence for a separate copyright lawsuit, alleging that the newspaper manipulated ChatGPT into reproducing copyrighted material in violation of OpenAI’s terms of use. The New York Times had previously sued OpenAI and Microsoft, alleging the unauthorized use of millions of its articles for chatbot training.

This series of lawsuits underscores a broader debate within the media and technology industries about the copyright issues related to AI’s use of copyrighted content for learning and development purposes. Company responses and outcomes of these legal challenges could have significant implications for copyright law, AI development, and the future relationship between technology companies and content creators.