According to legal documents, several outlets, including the Indian Express and the Hindustan Times, as well as digital news divisions of Indian billionaires Gautam Adani and Mukesh Ambani, have filed a legal challenge against OpenAI, alleging that it has improperly utilized copyright content.
The media outlets, which include NDTV operated by Adani and Network18 operated by Ambani, have informed a New Delhi court that they wish to participate in an ongoing lawsuit against the creator of ChatGPT. They are concerned that their news websites are being scraped in order to store and reproduce their content for users of the potent AI tool.
Reuters is the first to disclose the case filing by the digital news publishers, which escalates an ongoing legal battle against ChatGPT in India. Local news agency ANI was the first to file a lawsuit against OpenAI in the most high-profile battle last year. Book publishers from India and around the world have also participated.
The 135-page case filing in the New Delhi court, which was reviewed by Reuters but is not public, contends that OpenAI’s actions pose a “clear and present danger” to the valuable copyrights of Digital News Publishers Association (DNPA) members and other outlets.
It is a reference to the “wilful scraping… and adaptation of content” by OpenAI.
Authors, news outlets, and musicians are bringing claims in courts worldwide, accusing technology companies of utilizing their copyrighted work to train AI services. They are requesting that the content used to train the chatbot be removed.
Indian Express, Hindustan Times, Adani’s NDTV, and the DNPA, which represents approximately 20 companies, including Mukesh Ambani Network18 and entities such as the Hindu, Zee News, India Today Group, and Dainik Bhaskar, jointly submitted the filing. Additionally, numerous of these outlets have thriving newspaper and television news operations.
Despite being a member of the DNPA, The Times of India is not participating in the legal challenge.
A request for comment regarding the most recent allegations was not responded to by OpenAI. It has consistently refuted these allegations, asserting that its AI systems utilize publicly accessible data in a responsible manner.
Reuters’ request for comment was not promptly addressed by any of the Indian media companies.
The most high-profile legal proceeding in the nation on this subject, ANI’s litigation against the Microsoft-backed OpenAI, will be strengthened by the new intervention by Indian outlets. ANI’s lawsuit against OpenAI is scheduled for a hearing on Tuesday.
In comments reported by Reuters last week, OpenAI stated that any order to delete training data would constitute a violation of its U.S. legal obligations. Additionally, Indian judges lack jurisdiction to hear a copyright case against the company due to the fact that its servers are situated abroad. These comments were made in response to the ANI case.
In a statement, Reuters, which owns a 26% stake in ANI, stated that it is not involved in ANI’s business practices or operations.
Time magazine, the Financial Times, Axel Springer, the proprietor of Business Insider, France’s Le Monde, and Spain’s Prisa Media have all signed agreements with OpenAI to display content in recent months.
The new filing by the Indian publishers contends that OpenAI has entered into partnership agreements with media outlets abroad, but has not entered into similar arrangements in India, which has harmed the media companies.
The Indian media outlets’ filing stated that OpenAI’s actions in India “betray an inexplicable defiance of the law.”
The publishers also stated that OpenAI was poised to become a profit-driven enterprise that would capitalize on the creative endeavors of the media industry. Their filing stated that this would lead to a “weakened press” and would not be in the best interest of a vibrant democracy.
The November 2022 introduction of ChatGPT by OpenAI sparked a flurry of investment, consumer, and corporate interest in generative AI. After raising $6.6 billion last year, it is determined to remain at the forefront of the AI competition.
It hired Pragya Misra, a former WhatsApp executive, to manage public policy and partnerships in India last year. The country, which has a population of 1.4 billion, is experiencing a surge in online activity as a result of the affordable mobile data prices.
