North American newspaper group sues OpenAI and Microsoft to make them pay for news

A group of eight newspapers in the United States of America (USA), owned by the Alden Global Capital fund, is suing OpenAI and Microsoft, accusing them of having “stolen millions” of copyrighted news to train their artificial intelligence (AI) tools.

In the lawsuit, which was filed this week in federal court in New York, the newspapers allege that the use of their products by OpenAI, creator of ChatGPT, and Microsoft, shareholder of the former and creator of Copilot, is done without authorization or payment.

The group of newspapers bringing the action includes titles with regional prominence in the North American market, such as the New York Daily News, the Chicago Tribune and the Denver Post.

“We spend billions of dollars collecting information and reporting news in our publications and we cannot allow OpenAI and Microsoft to expand Big Tech’s playbook of stealing our work to build their own businesses at our expense,” said Frank Pine , executive editor of MediaNews Group and Tribune Publishing, in a statement cited by the Associated Press (AP).

Newspapers accuse technology companies of taking advantage of their brands when they identify the sources of information in the answers that AI tools give, but also of harming them when they associate them with wrong answers given by generative AI.

MediaNews Group, based in Denver, Colorado, is one of the communications arms of Alden Global Capital and controls around 100 newspapers and around 200 other publications, including websites.

This lawsuit follows another, brought by the North American newspaper The New York Times last year, also against OpenAI and Microsoft, accusing them of copyright infringement and abuse of the newspaper’s intellectual property in the development of your AI projects.

The New York Times wants to hold OpenAI and Microsoft liable for “billions of dollars in damages” for “illegal copying and use of valuable works unique to The Times,” accusing them of creating a business model based on “mass infringement of copyright”.

The law firm sponsoring the Alden newspapers’ lawsuit is Rothwell, Figg, Ernst & Manbeck, which is also one of the two firms representing The New York Times in its lawsuit.

Other organizations and authors such as John Grisham, Jodi Picoult, and George RR Martin have also filed lawsuits against OpenAI and Microsoft.

Microsoft does not comment, but OpenAI reacted to the latest lawsuits by stating its support for news-producing organizations.

“We are actively engaged in constructive partnerships and conversations with many news organizations around the world to explore opportunities, discuss any concerns and provide solutions”, guarantees OpenAI, in a statement.

In fact, the company led by Sam Altman signed agreements with the Financial Times (FT), the Axel Springer group and the AP, who will pay to access the information they provide. For the FT, this is a “strategic partnership”.

Before filing the lawsuit against the technology companies, The New York Times was negotiating an agreement to give access to its production.

Between one way, judicial life, and agreements, the negotiation route, the path seems to be being traced so that the use of news and other content produced by social media is remunerated by companies that are developing communication tools. AI.