In a recent development, a US district judge in California has largely ruled in favor of OpenAI, dismissing a majority of claims made by authors who alleged that the large language models behind ChatGPT were illegally trained on pirated copies of their books without permission. Despite this setback for the authors, OpenAI acknowledges that the battle is far from over, with plans to address the remaining claims at a later stage in the legal proceedings.
The Lawsuits: Authors, including notable names such as Sarah Silverman, Michael Chabon, and Paul Tremblay, raised concerns that ChatGPT's outputs were essentially repackaged versions of their original works, constituting a violation of copyright laws. They argued that OpenAI's popular chatbot was operating as a high-tech "grift," breaching both copyright laws and state regulations against unfair business practices and unjust enrichment.
The Judge's Decision: District Judge Araceli Martínez-Olguín rejected several copyright claims, including accusations of vicarious copyright infringement. Notably, the judge agreed with OpenAI's argument that the authors failed to prove a substantial similarity between ChatGPT outputs and their copyrighted materials. Additionally, claims under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) were dismissed due to a lack of evidence showing intentional removal of copyright management information (CMI) from training data.
Remaining Claims: While some claims were allowed to proceed, including an allegation under California's unfair competition law, the judge emphasized the need for authors to provide concrete examples of similarities between ChatGPT outputs and their works. The deadline for amending arguments and pursuing dismissed claims has been set for March 13.
OpenAI's Stance: OpenAI has maintained that it does not intend to cease referencing copyrighted works in its training data. The organization argues that it is "impossible" to train AI models without copyrighted materials, as copyright covers a broad range of human expressions essential for developing models that meet the needs of today's citizens.
Looking Ahead: As the legal battle continues, the US Copyright Office is expected to release reports this year addressing copyright law in relation to AI. OpenAI's stance on the necessity of copyrighted materials for training AI models underscores the ongoing debate about whether AI tools like ChatGPT should be considered authors when generating creative outputs. The outcome of these discussions could have significant implications for future legal battles and regulatory decisions in the AI landscape.
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