The Justice Department has urged a judge to side with OpenAI and Microsoft in a copyright lawsuit brought by The New York Times, arguing that AI companies should be allowed to train their models on the news outlet's content. The case could set a significant precedent for future AI training practices.
TL;DR
- The Justice Department supports OpenAI and Microsoft in a copyright lawsuit with The New York Times over AI training data.
- The outcome could shape the future of AI model training and copyright law.
- Over 100 copyright lawsuits are currently pending against AI companies, according to a list maintained by Santa Clara Law School professor Edward Lee.
What happened
The Justice Department filed a statement of interest in the lawsuit, arguing that constraining large language model (LLM) development under a misunderstanding of fair use doctrine would hinder American prosperity and economic mobility. The New York Times filed the lawsuit in 2023, alleging that using its content to train chatbots breaches copyright protections and the fair use doctrine. The lawsuit seeks monetary damages, a court order preventing companies from training their LLMs on its material, and the destruction of any models trained on its work. OpenAI and Microsoft do not dispute that its models trained on the news outlet's content but argue that doing so is legally permissible.
Why it matters
The case could set a significant precedent for future AI training practices, as many authors, songwriters, and other creative artists have engaged in legal action seeking compensation for their work being used for AI training. If companies end up needing to clear rights before training their LLMs, only large corporate entities like OpenAI and Microsoft would have the resources to pay for copyright costs, according to Harvard Law professor Lawrence Lessig. The outcome of this case could also influence where AI training occurs globally, as other countries like Singapore and Japan have legislation favoring AI training on copyrighted material.
Key facts
- The Justice Department urged a judge to side with OpenAI and Microsoft in a copyright lawsuit brought by The New York Times.
- The lawsuit was filed in 2023 in Manhattan Federal District Court.
- Over 100 copyright lawsuits are currently pending against AI companies, according to a list maintained by Santa Clara Law School professor Edward Lee.
- The New York Times seeks monetary damages, a court order preventing companies from training their LLMs on its material, and the destruction of any models trained on its work.
- OpenAI and Microsoft argue that training their models on the news outlet's content is legally permissible.
- Harvard Law professor Lawrence Lessig argues that training AI models on copyrighted works should be protected as fair use.
- Other countries like Singapore and Japan have legislation favoring AI training on copyrighted material.
Context
Copyright law can impact both the input (the training) and output (the response) of an AI model. The New York Times suit targets both input and output, arguing that copyright restricts the ability to train on copyrighted material and requires that the end product be significantly different than the input material. The issue with suing for copyright infringement is that almost everything that anyone has written in the last century is under U.S. copyright, so if models can't train on published information or anything on the web they may not have a realistic source to train at all. The outcome of this case could influence where AI training occurs globally, as other countries have legislation favoring AI training on copyrighted material.
