Los Angeles, California – A recent court ruling has partially dismissed a copyright case against OpenAI, brought by several authors, including comedian Sarah Silverman, who allege that OpenAI’s ChatGPT is pirating their work. The case combines complaints filed by Silverman, Christopher Golden, Richard Kadrey, Paul Tremblay, and Mona Awad. OpenAI had requested to dismiss all claims but the direct copyright infringement, and the court has ruled in favor of OpenAI, dismissing claims on vicarious copyright infringement, DMCA violations, negligence, and unjust enrichment. However, the main complaint that ChatGPT directly violated the authors’ copyrights remains on the table.
The lawsuits alleged that OpenAI illegally copied their copyrighted work to train the large language model powering ChatGPT. If prompted to summarize the books written by the plaintiffs, they said ChatGPT generated accurate summaries, which they claim shows an intention to violate copyright. While the court did not believe all of the plaintiffs’ allegations, it did uphold the unfair competition claim that OpenAI did not seek their permission to use their work for commercial profit.
The authors now have until March 13th to file changes to their original complaint. The case is significant as it sheds light on the complex legal issues surrounding AI and copyright infringement, particularly in the context of training large language models. OpenAI is also facing several copyright infringement lawsuits from other authors, including a proposed class action lawsuit from the Authors Guild and well-known authors like George R.R. Martin and John Grisham.
This case reflects the ongoing legal battles emerging as AI technology continues to advance, raising questions about how intellectual property laws should be applied to AI-generated content. It also highlights the challenges faced by both content creators and AI developers in navigating the murky waters of copyright law in the digital age. As the legal proceedings continue, it remains to be seen how the courts will ultimately rule on the complex issues at hand.