Millions of people in Florida and around the country use ChatGPT every day. The artificial intelligence chatbot can produce emails, social media posts, essays and even entire books in a matter of moments based on information it gathers from the internet, but much of this information is protected by copyright. OpenAI, which is the company behind ChatGPT, claims that it respects the rights of authors, but lawsuits filed against the company recently in California and New York suggest that many authors see things differently.
Copyright infringement lawsuits
OpenAI’s attorneys have been extremely busy in recent months. In August, they tried to convince a California judge to dismiss copyright infringement lawsuits filed by author Paul Tremblay and actress Sarah Silverman. In early September, they responded to similar litigation brought by group of writers including David Henry Hwang and Michael Chabon. However, OpenAI’s most difficult legal battle will probably take place in New York.
George R.R. Martin sues
That is because a group of 17 authors including George R.R. Martin filed a lawsuit in a New York federal court on Sept. 19 that accuses OpenAI of “flagrant and harmful” copyright infringement and “systematic theft.” The business litigation is being organized by the Authors Guild, and it is likely to attract a lot of media attention. An example of OpenAI’s alleged copyright infringement cited in the lawsuit is a story written by ChatGPT called “A Dawn of Direwolves.” The plaintiffs claim that the story includes several characters created by Martin in his popular “A Song of Ice and Fire” book series.
The limits of AI
Artificial intelligence is still in its nascent stages, and chatbots like ChetGPT have seemingly yet to learn how to separate information protected by copyright from information that is free to use. This may be why Amazon now asks authors if their books contain material generated by AI and limits the number of books that can be self-published on Kindle Direct.
