New York Times Lawsuit, According To OpenAI, Is “Without Merit,” But It’s Still Up For Partnership

The firm that created ChatGPT, OpenAI, has publicly criticized The New York Times, labeling the newspaper’s lawsuit against it as “without merit” and claiming that it is “not telling the full story.”

OpenAI has clarified why it rejects the allegations made in The New York Times lawsuit and how it is collaborating with news organizations to develop new prospects for mutual gain in a blog post titled “OpenAI and Journalism.”

For the uninitiated, the New York Times filed a lawsuit against OpenAI and its sponsor Microsoft, alleging that they violated copyright by utilizing the latter’s reporting to train GPT, the Large Language Model (LLM) that powers ChatGPT, in direct competition with the Times’ material. Moreover, the complaint highlights how this action might “endanger high-quality journalism” by preventing news organizations from defending themselves and losing out on revenue.

Even while OpenAI claims the New York Times manipulated the text prompts, it still wants to collaborate with it.

The New York Times’ alleged regurgitations seem to be from years-old pieces that have already found their way to other websites, according to OpenAI’s post. “It appears that they purposefully altered prompts, frequently incorporating extensive passages from articles, to induce our model to repeat information,” said OpenAI.

“Our models don’t typically behave the way The New York Times implies, which suggests they either instructed the model to regurgitate or cherry-picked their examples from many attempts,” the statement said. “Even when using such prompts.”

Despite this, according to OpenAI, this isn’t a normal user behavior and shouldn’t be used in place of The New York Times. Taking into account the Times’ lengthy history, the firm intends to forge a “constructive” cooperation with the newspaper.

ChatGPT, according to OpenAI, is assisting journalists with time-consuming tasks.

The firm states that its goals are to foster a positive news environment and build partnerships that benefit both parties. It claims that reporters and editors are already benefiting from the company’s technologies, such as ChatGPT, which helps them with public record analysis and story translation. Additionally, ChatGPT offers real-time content with attribution, enabling “new ways for news publishers to connect with readers.”

Notably, the AI behemoth has already formed partnerships with institutions including NYU, Axel Springer, Associated Press, and American Journalism Project.