One of India's biggest news agencies, Asian News International (ANI), has sued OpenAI, according to a TechCrunch report. This marks a significant legal battle that could shape the way AI companies use copyrighted news content in India.
A legal case was filed in the Delhi High Court on Monday accusing the AI firm backed by Microsoft of illegally utilising the content of ANI to train its models and alleging that OpenAI attributed a "non-existent" Rahul Gandhi interview to it.
In a hearing on Tuesday, Justice Amit Bansal issued a summons to OpenAI after ANI confirmed it had ensured that ChatGPT no longer accessed its website. However, the court declined to grant an immediate injunction, citing the case's complexity, which would require a detailed hearing. The next court session is scheduled for January.
"We take great care in our products and design process to support news organisations," an OpenAI spokesperson said in a statement to TechCrunch. "We are constructively engaged with partnerships and conversations with many news organisations across the world, including India, to explore opportunities, listen to feedback, and work collaboratively together.
The case has brought attention to growing global criticism over how AI firms are using copyrighted content.
In defence, the counsel of OpenAI, Amit Sibal, argued that the copyright law does not apply when the information is a matter of fact and that ChatGPT also gives the users an option for not bringing their data onto its platform. Sibal further said that OpenAI does not have any servers in India, challenging the jurisdiction of the lawsuit.
For ANI, lawyer Sidhant Kumar said that public availability would not confer rights to exploit the content. The counsel voiced specific reservations over the fact that ChatGPT has claimed fictional interviews with ANI, including one in which Rahul Gandhi is talking about a particular situation. The news agency has claimed that such false "hallucinations" could hurt its reputation, and may also lead to public disorder.
The court suggested that it is preparing to appoint an independent expert to inform the copyright implications of AI models using publicly available content. The future hearings will also deal with the technical details of how news content is spread across various platforms, a key issue in the raging debate over AI and intellectual property rights.