Indian news agency ANI sues OpenAI for unsanctioned content use in AI training

Indian news agency ANI has sued OpenAI in a New Delhi court, accusing the ChatGPT creator of using its published content without permission to help train the artificial intelligence chatbot, something that OpenAI says it has stopped doing.

ANI is the latest news organisation globally to take OpenAI to court following lawsuits in the US by newspapers including the New York Times and the Chicago Tribune.

The first hearing in the case took place in the New Delhi High Court on Tuesday, where the judge issued a notice to OpenAI to provide a detailed response to ANI's accusations.

In a statement, ANI said "the court is required to decide the legitimacy of the use of publicly available proprietary content by AI platforms."

ANI also accused OpenAI's ChatGPT of attributing fabricated news stories to the publication, according to its court submission dated Monday, a copy of which was reviewed by Reuters.

The court filing contained emails sent by OpenAI's lawyers in India to ANI saying the Indian news agency's website had been placed on an internal block list since September, ceasing usage of its content in future training of AI models.

ANI, however, argues that its published works are "permanently stored in the memory of ChatGPT" and "there is no programmed deletion".

Asked about the ANI lawsuit, a spokesperson for OpenAI said in a statement: "We build our AI models using publicly available data, in a manner protected by fair use and related principles, and supported by long-standing and widely accepted legal precedents".

OpenAI and other tech companies have faced a wave of lawsuits by authors, visual artists, music publishers and other copyright owners for allegedly exploiting their work without permission. OpenAI has denied copyright infringement.

ANI in its filing said that OpenAI had "refused to obtain a lawful license or permission" for the use of original works by ANI.

The media firm is concerned about unfair competition as OpenAI has commercial partnerships with other news organisations to distribute their content, ANI said in its statement.

The AI firm has entered into licensing arrangements with news organisations such as the Financial Times and Associated Press for similar use of copyrighted content, it said.

A spokesperson for Reuters, which holds a 26% interest in ANI, said it was not involved in ANI's business practices or operations.

In its statement, OpenAI said that it was engaged in partnerships with many news organisations around the world and was holding talks to explore more, similar opportunities, including in India.

The court is set to next hear the case on Jan. 28.