A group of major Canadian news organizations has filed a lawsuit against OpenAI, alleging that the creator of ChatGPT violated copyright laws by using their news content to train its chatbot and artificial intelligence models.
The lawsuit was filed on Friday in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice. It adds to a growing list of legal challenges faced by OpenAI regarding its use of data and news materials for training AI systems.
The plaintiffs are seeking punitive damages from the AI developer and payment of any profits earned by using their published news articles. Additionally, they are demanding a legal injunction to prevent OpenAI from using their content in the future.
In a joint statement, Torstar, Postmedia, The Globe and Mail, The Canadian Press, and CBC/Radio-Canada said,
“OpenAI regularly breaches copyright and online terms of use by scraping large amounts of content from Canadian media to develop its products, such as ChatGPT.”
They emphasized that OpenAI is doing this without obtaining permission or compensating the content owners.
“Journalism serves the public interest. OpenAI’s use of other companies’ journalism for its commercial gain is not only unethical but also illegal,” the plaintiffs stated.
This lawsuit is the latest in a series of legal battles OpenAI has faced in recent years. In December 2023, The New York Times filed a federal lawsuit against OpenAI and Microsoft, accusing them of copyright infringement.
Earlier this year, American billionaire Elon Musk also sued OpenAI, alleging that the company had strayed from its original mission of developing AI technology for the benefit of humanity and was instead operating for profit. Two weeks ago, Musk expanded his lawsuit, adding Microsoft—OpenAI’s largest financial backer—as a defendant and accusing both entities of monopolizing the generative AI market and sidelining competitors.
