A group of digital news units in India, including those owned by billionaires Gautam Adani and Mukesh Ambani, have filed a legal challenge against OpenAI’s use of their copyrighted content without permission. The news outlets, including NDTV and Network18, are worried that their content is being scraped and reproduced by ChatGPT, a powerful AI tool created by OpenAI. The legal papers argue that OpenAI’s conduct constitutes a “clear and present danger” to the valuable copyrights of the news publishers and other outlets.
The lawsuit, which was filed in a New Delhi court, alleges that OpenAI is engaging in “wilful scraping” and adaptation of content from the news outlets. This is not an isolated incident, as courts around the world are hearing similar claims from authors, news outlets, and musicians who accuse technology firms of using their copyrighted work to train AI services.
The Indian Express, Hindustan Times, and Dainik Bhaskar are among the outlets that have joined the lawsuit, which is being led by the Digital News Publishers Association (DNPA). The DNPA represents around 20 companies, including some of the largest media groups in India. However, The Times of India is not participating in the legal challenge despite being a member of the DNPA.
OpenAI has denied any wrongdoing, claiming that its AI systems make fair use of publicly available data. However, the news outlets argue that this is not a legitimate use of their copyrighted content. The lawsuit seeks to have the content used to train ChatGPT deleted and to prevent further unauthorized use of their copyrighted work. The case is the latest in a series of legal battles between technology firms and content creators over the use of AI services.