ANI sues OpenAI over alleged ‘unauthorised use of content’

Asian News International (ANI) has filed a lawsuit against OpenAI for allegedly using its content without permission to train ChatGPT.

The court filing includes emails sent by OpenAI’s lawyers in India to ANI saying the news agency had been placed on an internal block list since September, stopping the use of its content for AI training, Reuters reported on Wednesday.

OpenAI said in a statement that it has stopped using ANI’s content and is operating within the bounds of legality.

“We build our 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,” it said.

However, ANI argues that its published content is permanently stored in ChatGPT’s memory as the genAI chatbot doesn’t feature a deletion programme.

In its complaint, ANI also alleges that OpenAI “refused to obtain a legitimate license or permission” for content use purposes, while it entered into licensing agreements with news organisations including the Financial Times and Associated Press for copyrighted content use.

OpenAI added that it’s collaborating with several news organisations globally and is seeking to explore partnerships with other agencies, including in India.

The first hearing at the Delhi high court was scheduled on Tuesday this week, with the judge directing OpenAI to submit a detailed response to ANI’s accusations during the hearing.

A spokesman for Reuters, which holds a 26 per cent stake in ANI, said the organisation is not involved in ANI’s business operations.

ANI joins a list of global news organisations that have sued OpenAI in the past, including The New York Times and The Chicago Tribune.

In December 2023, The New York Times sued OpenAI and Microsoft for copyright infringement.

According to the lawsuit, OpenAI’s AI models including ChatGPT had been trained using unauthorised content belonging to the publication, infringing on their copyrights and allowing users with no subscription to access its content.

The Chicago Tribune, along with seven other newspapers, filed a lawsuit against OpenAI and Microsoft in April 2024, accusing the tech companies of using millions of copyrighted articles without permission to train their AI models.

In addition to news organisations, other copyright holders in the art and music industry have filed lawsuits against tech firms, accusing them of copyright infringement.

The next hearing has been scheduled for January 28 2025, with the judge asking OpenAI to provide more clarification regarding the accusations.