Game of Thrones author and other writers sue OpenAI, creator of "ChatGPT"

George R.R. Martin, the author of the "Game of Thrones" series, along with other writers, have filed a lawsuit against the emerging California-based company OpenAI, accusing it of using their works without consideration for their intellectual property rights in the development of the "ChatGPT" program.

In the lawsuit filed on Tuesday in a federal court in New York, the writers alleged that the company used their creations "without permission" to train its language model, the artificial intelligence technology behind the "ChatGPT" program, capable of generating various types of text with a simple prompt.

The attorneys representing the writers in this class-action lawsuit argued that "these algorithms involve systematic theft on a wide scale."

Among those filing the collective lawsuit are the Authors Guild and several writers, including George R.R. Martin and novelist John Grisham.

Several other lawsuits have been filed against OpenAI and competing companies by artists, organizations, and programmers.

The attorneys in the case filed on Tuesday claim that "the deliberate copying (of the work) by the plaintiffs transforms their works unfairly and perversely (...) into engines for their destruction."

The writers and the Authors Guild are seeking compensation for damages and the imposition of a ban on the use of books protected by author's rights "without explicit permission" in training language models.

OpenAI has not immediately responded to a request from Agence France-Presse (AFP) for comment on these allegations.

The company required vast amounts of text available on the internet to train its language model, but it did not precisely specify the websites and writings that were used.

OpenAI, which has become one of the giant artificial intelligence companies due to the widespread success of the "ChatGPT" program, is facing several similar lawsuits, including those brought against it by a group of computer engineers who also sued Microsoft, the primary investor in the startup, and the platform "GitHub."

In January, artists filed a lawsuit against "Stability AI," "Mejuri," and "Defiant Art," companies that trained their software using a large number of online visual artworks.

In early September, Microsoft announced that it would provide legal protection to its customers who were sued for violating copyright in the content created using its generative AI tools.



AFP