Encyclopedia Britannica sues OpenAI over AI training

<p>By Blake Brittain</p>
<p>March 16 (Reuters) - Encyclopedia Britannica and its Merriam-Webster subsidiary have sued <a href="https://www.yahoo.com/organizations/openai/">OpenAI</a> in Manhattan federal court for allegedly ‌misusing their reference materials to train its <a href="https://tech.yahoo.com/ai/">artificial intelligence</a> ‌models.</p>
<p>Britannica said in the complaint filed on Friday that Microsoft-backed OpenAI used its online ​articles and encyclopedia and dictionary entries to teach its flagship chatbot ChatGPT to respond to human prompts and "cannibalized" Britannica's web traffic with AI-generated summaries of its content.</p>
<p>"Our models empower innovation, and are trained on publicly ‌available data and grounded ⁠in fair use," an OpenAI spokesperson said on Monday in response to the lawsuit.</p>
<p>Spokespeople and attorneys for Britannica ⁠did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Monday.</p>
<p>The case is one of many high-stakes lawsuits filed by copyright owners including authors ​and news ​outlets against tech companies for using ​their material to train AI ‌systems without permission. Britannica filed a related lawsuit against artificial intelligence startup Perplexity AI last year that is still ongoing.</p>
<p>AI companies have argued that their systems make fair use of copyrighted content by transforming it into something new.</p>
<p>Britannica's lawsuit said that OpenAI unlawfully copied nearly 100,000 ‌of its articles to train GPT ​large language models. The complaint said that ​ChatGPT produces "near-verbatim" copies of ​Britannica's encyclopedia entries, dictionary definitions and other content, diverting ‌users who would otherwise visit its ​websites.</p>
<p>Britannica also accused ​OpenAI of infringing its trademarks by implying that it has permission to reproduce its material and wrongfully citing Britannica in ​false AI "hallucinations."</p>
<p>Britannica requested an ‌unspecified amount of monetary damages and a court order blocking ​the alleged infringement.</p>
<p>(Reporting by Blake Brittain in Washington; Editing ​by Kirsten Donovan and Chizu Nomiyama)</p>