Publisher Ziff Davis sues OpenAI for copyright infringement

By Blake Brittain

(Reuters) -Digital media publisher Ziff Davis sued OpenAI in Delaware federal court on Thursday, accusing the Microsoft-backed artificial-intelligence company of misusing its publications to train the model behind popular chatbot ChatGPT.

Ziff Davis argues that OpenAI "intentionally and relentlessly" exploited copyrighted content for its AI systems, according to a copy of the lawsuit provided by the media company.

"OpenAI seeks to move fast and break things on the assumption that the federal courts will not be able to effectively redress content owners' sometimes existential concerns before it is too late," the complaint said.

The new lawsuit adds to a web of high-stakes copyright cases brought by news outlets, authors, visual artists and others against OpenAI and other technology companies for allegedly misusing thousands of copyrighted works to train their generative AI systems without permission.

Ziff Davis' publications include tech news outlets ZDNet, PCMag, CNET and IGN and advice website Lifehacker. Other news publishers that have sued AI companies for copyright infringement include the New York Times and Dow Jones.

OpenAI and other defendants, including Google and Meta Platforms, have argued that their AI systems make fair use of copyrighted material by studying it to learn to create new, transformative content.

An OpenAI spokesperson said in a statement on Thursday that its AI models "empower innovation, and are trained on publicly available data and grounded in fair use."

A spokesperson for Ziff Davis declined to comment on the lawsuit.

(Reporting by Blake Brittain in Washington; Editing by David Gregorio)

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