Authors, Including George RR Martin, Sue OpenAI For Mass Theft

Adding to the already existing heap of lawsuits against OpenAI, a group of authors including George RR Martin best known for his magnum opus 'A Song of Ice and Fire' series have sued ChatGPT's developer OpenAI over data infringement. 

In papers filed in the New York federal court, the 17 authors alleged “flagrant and harmful infringements of plaintiffs’ registered copyrights” and called ChatGPT a “massive commercial enterprise” that is reliant upon “systematic theft on a mass scale” 

This lawsuit presents a compelling case, citing specific instances of ChatGPT searches related to each author. For instance, in the case of GRRM, the program is alleged to have generated "an infringing, detailed outline for a prequel" to 'Game of Thrones,' titled 'A Dawn of Direwolves.' Shockingly, it purportedly used "identical characters from Martin's pre-existing series.”

Just last month, OpenAI requested a California federal judge to dismiss two analogous lawsuits, one involving the author/comedian Sarah Silverman and the other from the author Paul Tremblay. In their legal defence, OpenAI said that these claims "misconceive the scope of copyright, failing to take into account the limitations and exceptions (including fair use) that properly leave room for innovations like the large language models now at the forefront of artificial intelligence”.

Even though Silicon Valley has been feeding on artist's data, fingers have been particularly raised at the celebrity — OpenAI — for its closed-door activities. While policy makers have been demanding change, no solution appears in far-sight. OpenAI is not the only one being slapped left, right and centre with legal cases.

In response, Stable Diffusion and Midjourney jointly sought the dismissal of a class-action lawsuit initiated by artists. Their argument rested on the premise that the AI-generated images differed significantly from the artists' work and that the lawsuit failed to pinpoint specific instances of misuse.

Read more: Big Tech Don’t Care About The Lawsuits