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John Grisham, Jodi Picoult and George RR Martin are among 17 authors suing OpenAI for “large-scale systematic theft.” This is the latest in a wave of legal action by authors concerned that artificial intelligence programs are using their copyrighted works without permission.
In papers filed Tuesday in federal court in New York, the authors alleged “flagrant and damaging violations of plaintiffs’ registered copyrights” and called the ChatGPT program a “massive commercial enterprise” based on “systematic theft on a large scale “is required.
The lawsuit was organized by the Authors Guild and also includes David Baldacci, Sylvia Day, Jonathan Franzen and Elin Hilderbrand, among others.
“It is imperative that we stop this theft or we will destroy our incredible literary culture that nourishes many other creative industries in the United States,” Mary Rasenberger, CEO of the Authors Guild, said in a statement.
“Great books are generally written by those who spend their careers and even their lives learning and perfecting their craft. To preserve our literature, authors must have the ability to control whether and how their works are used by generative AI.”
The lawsuit cites specific ChatGPT searches for each author, such as one for Martin, which claims the program created “an infringing, unauthorized and detailed draft of a prequel” to “Game of Thrones,” entitled “A Dawn of Direwolves” and “same” used characters from Martin’s existing books in the “Song of Ice and Fire” series.
John Grisham (left) and George RR Martin
(AP)
OpenAI’s press office did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Earlier this month, a handful of authors, including Michael Chabon and David Henry Hwang, sued OpenAI in San Francisco for “clear intellectual property infringement.”
In August, OpenAI asked a federal judge in California to dismiss two similar lawsuits, one against comedian Sarah Silverman and one against author Paul Tremblay. In a court filing, OpenAI said the claims “misunderstand the scope of copyright law and fail to take into account the limitations and exceptions (including fair use) that leave room for innovations like the large language models that are now at the forefront of artificial intelligence.” “
Authors’ objections to AI have contributed to Amazon.com, the country’s largest bookseller, changing its e-book policies. The online giant is now asking authors who want to publish through its Kindle Direct program to inform Amazon in advance that they are including AI-generated material. Amazon is also limiting the number of authors to three new self-published books per day on Kindle Direct to curb the spread of AI texts.