OpenAI, a renowned artificial intelligence research lab, is currently embroiled in a legal battle with an Indian news agency, ANI, over the unauthorized use of its content in training the ChatGPT AI language model. The case, which was filed in November, alleges that OpenAI violated copyright laws by utilizing ANI’s published content without permission.
In response to the lawsuit, OpenAI has challenged the jurisdiction of the Indian court, arguing that any order to remove ANI’s content from ChatGPT’s training data would conflict with its legal obligations under US law. In a detailed 86-page filing submitted to the Delhi High Court on Jan. 10, OpenAI emphasized that it is required to preserve training data while litigation is ongoing, making data removal orders from India incompatible with its legal responsibilities.
Furthermore, OpenAI pointed out that the company does not have a physical presence or servers located in India, asserting that the court lacks jurisdiction over its operations. Despite committing to discontinuing the use of ANI’s content in the future, OpenAI’s stance is that the material already integrated into ChatGPT’s dataset poses no risk of unauthorized reproduction.
ANI, on the other hand, has raised concerns about OpenAI’s commercial agreements with international media outlets, alleging unfair competition. The news agency claims that ChatGPT has reproduced significant portions of its articles verbatim or with minor alterations in response to user prompts.
The legal battle between OpenAI and ANI is set to be heard in court on Jan. 28, with ANI asserting that the Delhi High Court has the authority to address its grievances. This case is part of a growing trend of copyright challenges against AI companies for allegedly misusing copyrighted material to train AI models.
In the US, OpenAI is facing similar copyright infringement claims, including a high-profile case filed by The New York Times. Despite these legal challenges, OpenAI has consistently maintained that its AI systems rely on publicly available data and fall under fair use protections.
As the legal proceedings unfold, it remains to be seen how the court will navigate the complex intersection of AI technology, copyright law, and jurisdictional boundaries in this case.
This article was originally posted in the AI and Legal categories on Cryptoslate’s website.