Canadian publishers take OpenAI to court

In the newest legal battle between artificial intelligence and pretty much everybody else, OpenAI is once again on the chopping block.

A group of five Canadian news companies including the National Post, Toronto Star, The Globe and Mail, The Canadian Press, and CBC/Radio-Canada filed a lawsuit against OpenAI alleging copyright infringement and breaching their online terms of use, Reuters first reported. The group is seeking up to $20,000 Canadian for each article used by OpenAI, The Guardian reported.

"Rather than seek to obtain the information legally, OpenAI has elected to brazenly misappropriate the News Media Companies’ valuable intellectual property and convert it for its own uses, including commercial uses, without consent or consideration," the filing, which The Verge published, reads.

The filing goes on to allege that OpenAI has "capitalized on the commercial success of its GPT models, building an expansive suite of GPT-based products and services, and raising significant capital — all without obtaining a valid license from any of the News Media Companies. In doing so, OpenAI has been substantially and unjustly enriched to the detriment of the News Media Companies." The news companies, they write, did not receive "any form of consideration, including payment, in exchange for OpenAI's use of their Works."

"Journalism is in the public interest," Torstar, Postmedia, The Globe and Mail, The Canadian Press, and CBC/Radio-Canada said in a statement, according to Reuters. "OpenAI using other companies' journalism for their own commercial gain is not. It's illegal."

In response, OpenAI said that the data its models were trained on was publicly available and fair use.

"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," OpenAI spokesperson Jason Deutrom told The Verge in a statement.