OpenAI, the maker of the popular AI chatbot –ChatGPT, is pushing back against efforts made by major Indian media groups to join a copyright lawsuit against the AI company. According to a Reuters report, the company, in its recent court filing has argued that it does not use Indian media content to train ChatGPT and is not obligated to enter licensing deals with them. The Indian media groups here include the media houses owned by top bigwigs like Gautam Adani and Mukesh Ambani.
OpenAI, in a 31-page court document submitted to the court, has refuted the claims that it copies content from its website to train its AI model. The submitted documents are in response to a lawsuit by Indian news agency ANI. The latter has accused OpenAI of unauthorised copying of its news content.
Indian media come together to fight
ANI filed the lawsuit in November 2023. A coalition of Indian publishers, including NDTV (owned by Adani), The Indian Express, Hindustan Times, and the Digital News Publishers Association (DNPA), which represents Ambani’s Network1, has moved to be part of the case. These media houses have accused OpenAI of unauthorised extracting content content from their websites to train ChatGPT.
According to a BBC news report, ANI’s lawsuit is seeking damages of 20 million rupees ($230,000). This marks the first such legal hurdle for OpenAI in the Indian market which happens to be the second largest market for the AI firm. The case could have major implications for how AI companies handle content available online in India.
OpenAI stands by fair use
OpenAI in its legal response has maintained that it trains its AI models using the publicly available data and that it does not depend on content from the Indian media groups part of this case.
Global legal battle for AI content rights
The ANI lawsuit is part of a broader global trend of legal actions against OpenAI and other similar AI developers. The New York Times, is also engaged in a legal fight against OpenAI and the company has spent over $10 million in this battle so far. The publication has alleged that OpenAI uses content from its published articles without its permission to train its AI chatbots.
