Canadian News Organizations Initiate Legal Action Against OpenAI

A group comprising prominent Canadian news organizations has filed a lawsuit against OpenAI, the developer of the artificial intelligence chatbot ChatGPT. The legal action contends that OpenAI is unlawfully utilizing news articles to train its AI software. Among the media entities that have joined this suit, which is reportedly the first of its nature in Canada, are the Toronto Star, Metroland Media, Postmedia, The Globe and Mail, The Canadian Press, and CBC. In a joint statement, the media organizations asserted, “Journalism is in the public interest. OpenAI using other companies’ journalism for their own commercial gain is not. It’s illegal.” Conversely, OpenAI stated that its models are “trained on publicly available data.” The company further communicated to the BBC that its software is “grounded in fair use and related international copyright principles that are fair for creators and support innovation.” OpenAI also added, “We collaborate closely with news publishers, including in the display, attribution and links to their content in ChatGPT search, and offer them easy ways to opt out should they so desire.” The Canadian media coalition’s 84-page legal document alleges that OpenAI has disregarded protective measures such as paywalls and copyright disclaimers, which are intended to prevent the unauthorized duplication of content. The companies stated, “OpenAI regularly breaches copyright and online terms of use by scraping large swaths of content from Canadian media to help develop its products, such as ChatGPT.” This collective, which encompasses the publishers of Canada’s leading newspapers, is pursuing punitive damages amounting to C$20,000 ($14,300; £11,000) for each article they claim was unlawfully utilized to train ChatGPT, a total that could potentially reach billions of dollars in compensation. Furthermore, the news organizations are seeking a court order that would compel OpenAI to share profits derived from the use of their articles, alongside an injunction to prevent OpenAI from utilizing their content in the future. Although this lawsuit against OpenAI marks a precedent for Canadian publishers, it comes after comparable legal proceedings initiated in the United States last year by the New York Times and other publishing entities. In April, legal representatives for the Times accused OpenAI of deleting evidence crucial for their trial. Separately, the Authors Guild and a collective of prominent authors, including John Grisham, have also alleged copyright infringement. Earlier in the current week, the Wall Street Journal reported that OpenAI’s valuation reached C$219 billion following its most recent fundraising round with investors.