'Exploitative': News nonprofit sues OpenAI, Microsoft for copyright infringement

LOS ANGELES: The Center for Investigative Reporting said Thursday it has sued ChatGPT maker OpenAI and its closest business partner, Microsoft, marking a new front in the legal battle between news publications fighting against unauthorized use of their content on artificial intelligence platforms.

The nonprofit, which produces Mother Jones and Reveal, said that OpenAI used its content without permission and without offering compensation, violating copyrights on the organization's journalism. The lawsuit, filed in a New York federal court, focuses on how AI-generated summaries of articles threaten publishers - a move CIR called exploitative. "It's immensely dangerous," Monika Bauerlein, the nonprofit's CEO, told AP. "Our existence relies on users finding our work valuable and deciding to support it."

Bauerlein said that "when people can no longer develop that relationship with our work, when they no longer encounter Mother Jones or Reveal, then their relationship is with the AI tool."

That could "cut the entire foundation of our existence as an independent newsroom "while also threatening the future of other news organisations.