OpenAI Sued by Top Canadian Media Outlets Over Copyright Infringement

ChatGPT creator OpenAI has been sued by more news organizations for using articles to train its artificial intelligence systems, this time by top Canadian media outlets.

Torstar, Postmedia, The Globe and Mail, The Canadian Press and CBC/Radio-Canada on Friday filed a joint lawsuit in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice against OpenAI. The legal action alleges the Sam Altman-led firm is “infringing, authorizing, and/or inducing the infringement of the news media companies’ copyright in the owned works,” in violation of copyright laws.

The AI giant has been sued by several publishers and other copyright holders, accusing OpenAI of pilfering their work without compensation and consent to use articles by media companies to train automated chatbots.

In a statement, the Canadian media outlets added: “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. OpenAI is capitalizing and profiting from the use of this content, without getting permission or compensating content owners.”

Their claim aims to address the “inappropriate and illegal use of Canadian content, and enforce Canadian laws.” The lawsuit, led by legal firm Lenczner Slaght LLP, seeks punitive damages from OpenAI and a permanent injunction against the AI giant from using their news articles.

The court action out of Canada expands a multi-front legal battle against OpenAI that includes earlier legal claims from The New York Times, Chicago Tribune and Denver Post. Media organizations that have reached arrangements with OpenAI include Axel Springer, owner of Politico and Business Insider; News Corp.; The Associated Press; the Financial Times; Vox Media and The Atlantic.

Paul Deegan, president and CEO of News Media Canada, which represents major newspaper groups like Torstar and Postmedia, in a statement to THR argued: “These artificial intelligence companies cannibalize proprietary content and are free-riding on the backs of news publishers who invest real money to employ real journalists who produce real stories for real people. They are strip mining journalism while substantially, unjustly, and unlawfully enriching themselves to the detriment of publishers.”

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