Nina Chandra
OpenAI is no stranger to lawsuits. The San Francisco-based company has been sued by major newspaper outlets, Elon Musk, and now various groups of award-winning authors.[1] These authors have brought several class-action suits across various jurisdictions, alleging copyright infringement in relation to the training of Open AI’s Large Language Models (such as ChatGPT). While recent decisions across the country lean more sympathetic towards OpenAI, one question remains unresolved: does use of material, such as works of fiction, to train Large Language Models like OpenAI’s ChatGPT constitute copyright infringement under the law?
Litigation began in June of 2023, when Paul Tremblay and Mona Awad, both fiction authors, brought a class-action suit against OpenAI in the Northern District of California.[2] They claimed OpenAI used their fictional works without their permission and without compensation.[3] ChatGPT’s ability to generate summaries of their novels serves as proof, according to the complaint, of copyright infringement.[4] Shortly after, additional groups of authors including Ta-Nehisi Coates and Sarah Silverman filed similar class-actions against OpenAI, also in the Northern District of California.[5] In September of 2023, the Authors Guild and 17 authors including John Grisham and George R.R. Martin brought another class-action suit against OpenAI, this time in the Southern District of New York.[6] The claims of all the lawsuits were substantively the same: copyrighted works of fiction were used to train OpenAI’s Large Language Model (ChatGPT) without the consent of the authors who produced those works. OpenAI argues that the fair use doctrine protects its innovative transformation of fictional works, and the outputs produced by LLMs are not similar enough to the content of the fiction in question.[7]
A year after complaints were filed, OpenAI appears to be winning the battle. In February of this year, a federal judge in California partially granted OpenAI’s motion to dismiss plaintiffs’ claims.[8] In doing so, the judge rejected the claim that every output of ChatGPT is an “infringing derivative work” and found that injury to plaintiffs was speculative at best.[9] In April, a federal judge in New York blocked a motion by plaintiffs in California to intervene in the New York suit.[10] While lawsuits are still pending against OpenAI, these recent moves from courts on both coasts do not foretell knock-out wins for authors.
The stakes are high for the writers involved in these lawsuits. As argued by a press release from the Authors Guild, the advent of AI threatens the very profession of writing.[11] When ChatGPT can effectively produce a near-perfect summary of a book, perhaps even generate a probable sequel using the author’s past material, a writer’s role hangs in the balance. Courts will have to balance the growing appetite for AI alongside the creative labor long valued by authors and their readers.
[1] Katie Robertson, 8 Daily Newspapers Sue OpenAI and Microsoft Over AI, N.Y. Times, Apr. 30, 2024; Cade Metz, Elon Musk Revives Lawsuit Against OpenAI and Sam Altman, N.Y. Times, Aug. 5, 2024.
[2] Plaintiff Compl., Class Action, Demand for Jury Trial at 1, Tremblay v. OpenAI, Inc., 2023WL 557720 (N.D. Cal.) (No. 3:23-cv-03223-AMO).
[3] Id.
[4] Id.
[5] Silverman v. OpenAI, Inc., 2023 WL 10673219 (N.D. Cal.).
[6] Plaintiff Complaint against OpenAI at 1, Authors Guild v. OpenAI Inc. (S.D.N.Y.) (1:23CV08292).
[7] Def. Notice of Mot., Mot. to Dismiss, and Mem. Of Points and Authorities in Support of Mot. to Dismiss, Tremblay v. OpenAI, Inc., 2023 WL 8947045 (N.D. Cal.) (No. 3:23-cv-03223-AMO).
[8] Order Granting in Part and Denying in Part the Motions to Dismiss, Tremblay v. OpenAI, Inc., 2024 WL 557720 (N.D. Cal.) (No. 3:23-cv-03223-AMO).
[9] Id. at 5.
[10] Bill Ridgeway, Zack Faigen & Alex Sim, Judge denies plaintiffs’ efforts to intervene in New York copyright actions against OpenAI, Reuters, Apr. 17, 2024, https://www.reuters.com/legal/legalindustry/judge-denies-plaintiffs-effort-intervene-new-york-copyright-actions-against-2024-04-17/.
[11] Press Release, The Authors Guild, John Grisham, Jodi Picoult, David Baldacci, George R.R. Martin, and 13 Other Authors File Class-Action Suit Against OpenAI (Sept. 20, 2023), https://authorsguild.org/news/ag-and-authors-file-class-action-suit-against-openai/ [https://perma.cc/WB29-ZDPZ].