A coalition of nine regional news organizations, including The Virginian-Pilot and Los Angeles Daily News, has filed a substantial copyright lawsuit against Microsoft Corp. and OpenAI Inc. The lawsuit, lodged in New York federal court, claims that the tech giants unlawfully used protected content to train their generative AI products, seeking damages exceeding $10 billion. The complaint highlights escalating tensions between traditional media and AI developers, asserting that large language models indiscriminately scrape copyrighted works without obtaining necessary permissions. Allegations include that OpenAI’s GPT models have “memorized” these materials, generating “verbatim or near-verbatim” outputs when prompted. The plaintiffs argue for a significant award, emphasizing it is a fraction of the immense profits amassed by Microsoft and OpenAI from the alleged copyright infringement. This case involves major players like the California Newspapers Partnership and Prairie Mountain Publishing Co., aiming to protect publisher rights in an era dominated by AI technology.
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