Recently, OpenAI has made a controversial request in its copyright lawsuit with The New York Times, demanding access to the newspaper's research materials and internal documents. The New York Times has strongly opposed this, viewing OpenAI's request as a form of harassment aimed at suppressing the normal operations of news agencies.
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The New York Times stance is that copyright issues should be assessed solely based on their published articles, without involving reporters' private notes or interview materials. The newspaper is concerned that OpenAI's move could create a chilling effect on journalists and news organizations, impacting their creative freedom.
OpenAI's attorneys argue that The New York Times, in its original complaint, claimed that its works require "considerable time, expertise, and talent" as well as "in-depth investigation," hence they are requesting these internal documents to evaluate the relevance of copyright issues. The New York Times filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against OpenAI and Microsoft at the end of 2023, accusing ChatGPT of copying its content verbatim in certain instances. In response, OpenAI has retaliated by accusing The New York Times of violating its terms of service through numerous attempts.
Interestingly, OpenAI's lawyers do not seem to be directly seeking a fair use ruling but are more focused on other issues related to copyright and technology. If The New York Times' case is dismissed due to this, OpenAI will win the lawsuit, but the ruling on fair use remains unresolved. Perhaps, OpenAI and Microsoft are buying time, hoping that the relevance of fair use will diminish before AI companies find non-infringing training methods.
Meanwhile, Meta has recently released an update to the Llama3 model, where smaller models have been improved with the help of larger models, indicating that the future of AI training might involve learning more with less data. Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, recently stated that future AI training will rely more on high-quality data rather than quantity.
Key Points:
📄 OpenAI's request for journalists' research materials in the copyright lawsuit has sparked strong opposition from the media.
⚖️ The New York Times believes that copyright should be based on published content, not reporters' private notes, fearing this will affect news freedom.
⏳ OpenAI's lawyers seem to be avoiding a fair use ruling, possibly in search of new AI training methods to reduce copyright risks.