Encyclopedia Britannica sues OpenAI for copyright and trademark infringement

"Britannica alleged that OpenAI illegally used its 'copyrighted content at a massive scale' when training its AI models. Not just with training, the encyclopedia company claimed that ChatGPT's responses to user queries sometimes contain 'full or partial verbatim reproductions of [Britannica's] copyright articles.'"

"According to the lawsuit, ChatGPT generates 'made-up content or hallucinations' and falsely attributes them to Encyclopedia Britannica. The lawsuit doesn't specify an amount for monetary damages, but Britannica is also seeking an injunction to prevent OpenAI from repeating these accusations."

"A spokesperson for OpenAI told Engadget that, 'ChatGPT helps enhance human creativity, advance scientific discovery and medical research, and enable hundreds of millions of people to improve their daily lives. Our models empower innovation, and are trained on publicly available data and grounded in fair use.'"

Encyclopedia Britannica filed a lawsuit against OpenAI, alleging copyright and trademark infringements. The company claims OpenAI used its copyrighted content at massive scale during AI model training and that ChatGPT sometimes reproduces full or partial verbatim excerpts from Britannica articles. Additionally, Britannica argues ChatGPT generates false information and incorrectly attributes it to the encyclopedia. The lawsuit seeks an injunction to prevent future violations. OpenAI responded that ChatGPT enhances creativity and scientific discovery while being trained on publicly available data under fair use principles. Britannica previously sued Perplexity for similar reasons, while OpenAI faces ongoing litigation with The New York Times over copyright infringement.

Read at Engadget