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Lawsuit or License?

Columbia Journalism Review · Klaudia Jaźwińska · last updated

Announcing a new tool to keep track of disputes and deals between news publishers and AI companies.

Last Wednesday, two lawsuits were filed against OpenAI and Microsoft, adding to a long string of copyright cases against AI companies. One suit, filed by nine regional publishers in the United States owned or managed by MediaNews Group, alleges that, by “designing, training, and operating AI models that pilfer, copy, memorize, and replicate” their work, OpenAI and Microsoft deprive these news sites of traffic, reduce advertising and subscription revenue, and threaten the overall value of their businesses. The publishers seek more than ten billion dollars in damages, which the suit describes as “a pittance” compared with how much money AI companies make off of copyrighted content.

The second lawsuit, filed by the US News & World Report—known for publishing education and financial rankings—alleges that the business has been harmed by “OpenAI’s hijacking of content” from its sites.

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