Renowned authors take legal action against OpenAI and Microsoft over alleged misuse of books in AI training

Eleven authors, including Pulitzer winners Taylor Branch, Stacy Schiff, and Kai Bird, join forces in a lawsuit against OpenAI and Microsoft. Allegations cite unauthorized use of their books to train AI models like ChatGPT.
Logo, Computer Hardware, Electronics, Hardware, Text

A lawsuit brought forth in a Manhattan federal court by 11 nonfiction writers, including Pulitzer Prize victors Taylor Branch, Stacy Schiff, and Kai Bird, alleges that OpenAI and Microsoft infringed upon their copyrights by using the authors’ written materials to train OpenAI’s ChatGPT language models. The authors assert that their books, like “American Prometheus,” were improperly employed by these tech companies to create AI-driven software without obtaining proper consent or providing fair compensation. The authors are pursuing unspecified damages and are requesting a court order to halt the infringement of their copyrights.

This lawsuit marks the initial instance where an author’s legal action targeted OpenAI, with Microsoft also being implicated. As states by Reuters, having invested billions into the AI startup and seamlessly embedded OpenAI’s systems into its own products, Microsoft faced allegations alongside OpenAI in this lawsuit.

Initiated by writer Julian Sancton and later joined by these authors, this lawsuit is among several legal actions taken by prominent authors like John Grisham and George R.R. Martin against technology companies, claiming the misuse of their works in AI training.