OpenAI files to dismiss key elements of New York Times lawsuit

OpenAI is seeking to have a judge dismiss key elements of a lawsuit brought by The New York Times that aims to bring an to end its practice of using the outlet’s stories to train chatbots.

As part of its lawsuit filed in December, the Times argued OpenAI poses a threat to the newspaper’s bottom line by effectively stealing billions of dollars worth of work by its journalists.

OpenAI operates ChatGPT, which uses artificial intelligence to pull information from online news articles and other sources on the internet to train a chatbot to answer questions posed by a user.

In a new filing in the Southern District of New York this week, OpenAI argued ChatGPT “is not in any way a substitute for a subscription to The New York Times” and asked a judge to toss the lawsuit.

“In the real world, people do not use ChatGPT or any other OpenAI product for that purpose,” the filing said. “Nor could they. In the ordinary course, one cannot use ChatGPT to serve up Times articles at will.”

The Times’s suit against OpenAI is being closely watched by media business executives and industry observers, as the case’s result is likely to set precedent in regard to the copyright claims of media companies in an age of enhanced artificial intelligence capabilities.

“Building new products is no excuse for violating copyright law, and that’s exactly what OpenAI has done on an unprecedented scale,” said Ian Crosby, a Susman Godfrey partner and lead counsel for The New York Times. “In this filing, OpenAI doesn’t dispute — nor can they — that they copied millions of The Times’s works to build and power its commercial products without our permission.”

—Updated at 4:16 p.m. The Associated Press contributed reporting.