Lawsuit challenges AI-based GitHub Copilot
A lawsuit has been filed challenging the legality of GitHub Copilot, an AI-based tool that assists with code suggestions. The lawsuit claims Microsoft, GitHub, and Open violate creators’ rights by training their systems on public repositories and potentially using copyright-protected data for profit. This case could impact the future of open-source licenses.
Programmer and lawyer Matthew Butterick and several other litigators have filed a class action lawsuit in a US federal court against Microsoft, GitHub, and OpenAI over the legality of the GitHub Copilot – a tool that relies on artificial intelligence to suggest code and entire functions in real-time. The lawsuit argues these companies – by training their AI systems on public GitHub repositories – violate the legal rights of creators who posted code or other work under certain open-source licences on GitHub. It is further claimed that the companies make significant profits by scraping copyright materials from the web and training their software on copyright-protected data. While the case is still in its early stage, it may have significant ramifications for the future of AI and open-source licence practice.
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