The New York Times is suing OpenAI and Microsoft, its largest backer, for allegedly exploiting copyrighted articles as training material for AI chatbot models.

The New York Times is suing OpenAI and Microsoft, the company's largest backer, alleging that the companies improperly exploited copyrighted articles as training material for the models that drive ChatGPT and other artificial intelligence chatbots. The case will help wounded newsrooms restore some influence in their relationships with giant tech players, regardless of the case's legal outcome.

The Times is the latest prominent writer and artist in the US to file a lawsuit against AI model makers they claim are stealing intellectual property illegally. AI models like OpenAI's ChatGPT, which leverages high-quality data to provide human-like answers to user inquiries, are powered by this data. The Times filed a complaint on December 27th, claiming that after months of talks, they were unable to come to an arrangement with OpenAI that would have allowed them to charge for content licensing. Unlike its predecessors, the Times case goes farther, providing multiple instances of ChatGPT responses that appear nearly identical to its stories and falsely attribute information to the publication.

It makes perfect sense for The Times and others to target wealthy individuals. Conventional news publications are struggling to stay afloat. Based on projections from LSEG, analysts anticipate that the Ochs-Sulzberger family-controlled corporation will record 2023 revenue that is flat compared to the previous year.