Coalition of news publishers sue Microsoft and OpenAI

A coalition of major news publishers has filed a lawsuit against Microsoft and OpenAI, accusing the tech giants of unlawfully using copyrighted articles to train their generative AI models without permission or payment.

First reported by The Verge, the group of eight publications owned by Alden Global Capital (AGC) – including the Chicago Tribune, New York Daily News, and Orlando Sentinel – allege the companies have purloined “millions" of their articles without permission...

1 May 2024 | Applications

FT and OpenAI ink partnership amid web scraping criticism

The Financial Times and OpenAI have announced a strategic partnership and licensing agreement that will integrate the newspaper's journalism into ChatGPT and collaborate on developing new AI products for FT readers. However, just because OpenAI is cozying up to publishers doesn't mean it's not still scraping information from the web without permission.

Through the deal, ChatGPT users will be able to see selected attributed summaries, quotes, and rich links to FT journalism in...

29 April 2024 | Applications

Nightshade ‘poisons’ AI models to fight copyright theft

University of Chicago researchers have unveiled Nightshade, a tool designed to disrupt AI models attempting to learn from artistic imagery.

The tool – still in its developmental phase – allows artists to protect their work by subtly altering pixels in images, rendering them imperceptibly different to the human eye but confusing to AI models.

Many artists and creators have expressed concern over the use of their work in training commercial AI products without their...

24 October 2023 | Artificial Intelligence

UMG files landmark lawsuit against AI developer Anthropic

Universal Music Group (UMG) has filed a lawsuit against Anthropic, the developer of Claude AI.

This landmark case represents the first major legal battle where the music industry confronts an AI developer head-on. UMG – along with several other key industry players including Concord Music Group, ABKCO, Worship Together Music, and Plaintiff Capital CMG – is seeking $75 million in damages.

The lawsuit centres around the alleged unauthorised use of copyrighted music by...

19 October 2023 | Artificial Intelligence

GitLab: Developers view AI as ‘essential’ despite concerns

A survey by GitLab has shed light on the views of developers on the landscape of AI in software development.

The report, titled ‘The State of AI in Software Development,’ presents insights from over 1,000 global senior technology executives, developers, and security and operations professionals.

The report reveals a complex relationship between enthusiasm for AI adoption and concerns about data privacy, intellectual property, and security.

“Enterprises...

6 September 2023 | Applications

Getty is suing Stable Diffusion’s creator for copyright infringement

Stock image service Getty Images is suing Stable Diffusion creator Stability AI over alleged copyright infringement.

Stable Diffusion is one of the most popular text-to-image tools. Unlike many of its rivals, the generative AI model can run on a local computer.

Apple is a supporter of the Stable Diffusion project and recently optimised its performance on M-powered Macs. Last month, AI News reported that M2 Macs can now generate images using Stable Diffusion in under 18...

18 January 2023 | Applications

OpenAI and Microsoft hit with lawsuit over GitHub Copilot

A class-action lawsuit has been launched against OpenAI and Microsoft over GitHub Copilot.

GitHub Copilot uses technology from OpenAI to help generate code and speed up software development. Microsoft says that it is trained on “billions of lines of public code … written by others.”

Last month, developer and lawyer Matthew Butterick announced that he’d partnered with the Joseph Saveri Law Firm to investigate whether Copilot infringed on the rights of developers...

9 November 2022 | Applications

Experts debate whether GitHub’s latest AI tool violates copyright law

GitHub’s impressive new code-assisting AI tool called Copilot is receiving both praise and criticism.

Copilot draws context from the code that a developer is working on and can suggest entire lines or functions. The system, from OpenAI, claims to be “significantly more capable than GPT-3” in generating code and can help even veteran programmers to discover new APIs or ways to solve problems.

Critics claim the system is using copyrighted code that GitHub then plans...

6 July 2021 | Companies