U.S. Court Dismisses Majority of Claims in OpenAI Copyright Lawsuit

A U.S. federal court recently made a significant decision in a copyright lawsuit against OpenAI, the developer of ChatGPT, an AI chatbot. The lawsuit, brought by authors Paul Tremblay, Sarah Silverman, Christopher Golden, and Richard Kadrey, accused OpenAI of various copyright infringements and unfair business practices.

However, the court dismissed four out of the six allegations, including vicarious copyright infringement, distributing a work after removing its copyright information, unfair competition, negligence, and unjust enrichment. The judge, Araceli Martínez-Olguín, stated that the plaintiffs had not provided sufficient evidence to support these claims.

Court Dismisses Majority of Claims in OpenAI Copyright Lawsuit

The two remaining allegations are direct copyright infringement and unfair business practices. The court found that if OpenAI did use copyrighted works to train its language models for commercial gain, it could constitute unfair practice.

Despite the dismissal of most claims, the lawsuit is not over yet. The plaintiffs have until March 13 to file an amended complaint addressing the court’s concerns. OpenAI still needs to address the two remaining allegations.

This legal battle is part of a broader issue surrounding the development of generative AI technology. OpenAI has faced similar legal challenges in the past. In a separate case, The New York Times sued both OpenAI and its financial backer, Microsoft, alleging that they used the publication’s copyrighted articles to train their AI chatbot.

In conclusion, while the court’s decision is a setback for the plaintiffs, the case is far from over. Both sides will continue to litigate the remaining claims, highlighting the complex legal and ethical challenges posed by AI technology.