Some media companies and content producers have filed lawsuits against Generative AI (artificial intelligence) software companies such as OpenAI (maker of ChatGPT), Microsoft, Anthropic, Midjourney, Stability AI, Perplexity AI, and DeviantArt, and chip giants Nvidia and Intel.
Many of the lawsuits involve alleged copyright infringement. The complaints often claim that AI companies illegally train various large language models (LLMs) on copyrighted content from media companies.
In response, Generative AI companies typically say the lawsuits are without merit because their business strategies leverage "fair use" to train their AI models.
Meanwhile, some media companies are licensing their content to Generative AI companies -- though financial terms of such deals typically remain confidential.
The stakes are extremely high for all Internet content producers, generative AI companies and their investors. Previous technology waves -- from search engines to streaming services -- disrupted traditional paid media content models. Generative AI, some critics allege, could further pressure content providers, claiming that AI is illegally gathering and leveraging trademarked information. As a result, Generative AI threatens the sustainability of content producers worldwide, some critics claim.
The timeline below, updated regularly, tracks Generative AI lawsuits, legal cases, judgments, settlements, licensing agreements, and business outcomes. Check back regularly for updates.
AI Lawsuits: November 2024 Updates
November 22 - New York Times Lawsuit Update vs. OpenAI: The New York Times says it spent 150 hours sifting through OpenAI’s training data looking for potential evidence—only for OpenAI to delete all of its work, The Times alleges, according to a Wired report.
November 19 - Lawsuit vs OpenAI: The news agency ANI has sued OpenAI for using its “original news content” in an unauthorized manner, possibly becoming the first Indian publisher to drag an AI company to court for violating its intellectual property rights, the Hindustan Times reported.
November 15 - Lawsuit Expanded: Elon Musk's lawsuit against OpenAI has expanded to include new defendants such as Microsoft, LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman, and former OpenAI board member and Microsoft VP Dee Templeton, TechCrunch reported.
November 14 - Lawsuit vs OpenAI: GEMA, a German licensing body, has filed suit against OpenAI, alleging that OpenAI "systematically uses GEMA’s repertoire to train its systems," Music Business World reported.
November 8 -Lawsuit Dismissed: The Southern District of New York dismissed a lawsuit against OpenAI filed by two news media outlets, Silicon Republic reported. The suit, filed by Raw Story Media and AlterNet Media in early 2024, alleged OpenAI violated the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) by scraping copyrighted journalistic work to train its AI models, the report said.
November 7 - Canadian Lawsuit: The Canadian Legal Information Institute (CanLII) has filed a lawsuit against Caseway AI, claiming the AI chatbot infringed on its copyrighted work, CBC reported.
November 6 - Google's Response: Google objected to new claims that involve consolidating AI copyright suits, Bloomberg Law reported.
November 5- New York Times vs. OpenAI: The New York times asked a federal judge to order OpenAI to identify and admit all the newspapers' articles the tech company used to train its AI models, Bloomberg Law reported.
Generative AI Lawsuits: October 2024 Updates
October 24 - Lawsuit vs Character.AI: A mother has sued Character.AI, claiming the chatbot platform played a role in her son's suicide. Meanwhile, Character.AI said it would roll out a number of new safety features, including “improved detection, response, and intervention” related to chats that violate its terms of service and a notification when a user has spent an hour in a chat, TechCrunch reported.
October 23 - Partnership Investigation: Google's partnership with Anthropic is being formally probed by the U.K.'s antitrust regulator, SeekingAlpha reported.
October 21 - Lawsuit vs Perplexity: The Wall Street Journal parent Dow Jones and the New York Post are suing generative AI search engine Perplexity for copyright infringement, The Journal reported. Perplexity AI is seeking funding at an $8 billion valuation. Early investors include Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.
October 10 - Content Licensing: OpenAI has signed a content licensing agreement with Hearst, the major media company. Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed.
October 9 - Elon Musk vs. OpenAI Case: OpenAI accused Elon Musk of harassment in a legal fight that’s unfolding as the startup weighs a plan to shift to a for-profit business model, The LA Times reported.
October 3 - Potential Lawsuit Against Meta: Novelist Christopher Farnsworth has filed a proposed class-action copyright lawsuit against Meta, Reuters reported. The lawsuit accuses Facebook's parent of misusing his books to train its Llama artificial-intelligence large language model, the report said.
October 1 - Legal Update: OpenAI and Microsoft's GitHub will head to the country’s largest federal appeals court to resolve their first copyright lawsuit from open-source programmers, Bloomberg reported. The programmers claim Microsoft Copilot violates a decades-old digital copyright.
Generative AI Lawsuits: September 2024 Updates
September 26 - Meta Lawsuit: A group of U.S. authors can depose Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg in a lawsuit accusing Meta of misusing copyrighted books to train its AI systems, Reuters reported. Meta had tried to block the group from questioning Zuckerberg.
September 19 - Meta Lawsuit: A federal judge brutally dressed down the lawyers for a group of high-profile authors who are suing Meta over the use of their work to train Meta's AI technology, Politico reported.
Septembner 18 - Lawsuit vs Nvidia: Neural AI has filed suit against Nvidia, alleging that a suite of software, including AI tools, infringed several machine learning technology patents, Bloomberg Law reported. An Nvidia spokesperson declined to comment about the suit to Bloomberg Law.
September 16 - Lawsuit vs Google: Gemini Data, a small AI company, has filed suit against Google, Reuters reported, claiming the search giant allegedly violated trademark rights to the Gemini name.
Generative AI Lawsuits: August 2024 Updates
August 28 - OpenAI Responds: In a court filing, OpenAI denied that it misused the work of authors including Michael Chabon, Ta-Nehisi Coates and comedian Sarah Silverman to train its AI language model, Reuters reported.
August 21 - Class-Action Lawsuit vs. Anthropic: Authors Andrea Bartz, Charles Graeber and Kirk Wallace Johnson have filed a class-action lawsuit against Anthropic, alleging that Anthropic “built a multibillion-dollar business by stealing hundreds of thousands of copyrighted books,” CNBC reported.
August 21 - Content License: Magazine publisher Conde Nast has signed a multi-year licensing deal with OpenAI, The Information reported. Content from Conde Nast publications will now appear within OpenAI products such as ChatGPT and SearchGPT, the report said.
August 14 - X (formerly Twitter) Faces Lawsuit: Austrian advocacy group NOYB filed a complaint against social media platform X Reuters reported, accusing the Elon Musk-owned company of training its AI with users' personal data without their consent in violation of EU privacy law.
August 12 - Lawsuit vs Intel: Software maker Anaconda has sued Intel in Delaware federal court, accusing the chipmaker of misusing its software for developing artificial-intelligence platforms, Reuters reported. Related: Generative AI lawsuit timeline.
August 9 - AI Lawsuit: Software maker Anaconda has sued Intel in Delaware federal court, accusing the chipmaker of misusing its software for developing artificial-intelligence platforms, Reuters reported. Related: Generative AI lawsuit timeline.
August 5 - Elon Musk vs. OpenAI: Elon Musk revived a lawsuit against ChatGPT maker OpenAI and its CEO Sam Altman, alleging that OpenAI put profits and commercial interests ahead of the public good, Reuters reported. Musk has also launched xAI to compete against OpenAI.
August 2 - Scope Narrowed: A U.S. District Judge dismissed a claim accusing OpenAI of unfair business practices by utilizing the works of authors — including Sarah Silverman, Paul Tremblay and Ta-Nehisi Coates — without consent or compensation to power its AI system, The Hollywood Reporter said. However, the authors' primary claim for direct copyright infringement remains in the case, the report added.
Generative AI Lawsuits: July 2024 Updates
July 31 - AI Investigation: The UK's antitrust agency is taking a look at Google's partnership with artificial intelligence startup Anthropic, SeekingAlpha reported.
July 31 - AI Concerns: Perplexity AI debuted a revenue-sharing model for publishers after more than a month of plagiarism accusations, CNBC reported.
July 19 - Lawsuit vs OpenAI and Microsoft: OpenAI escaped a copyright lawsuit from a group of open-source programmers after they voluntarily dismissed their case against the AI company in federal court, Bloomberg reported. However, the programmers' case against GitHub and parent company Microsoft continues forward.
July 13 - OpenAI Concerns: OpenAI whistleblowers have filed a complaint with the Securities and Exchange Commission alleging the AI company illegally prohibited its employees from warning regulators about the grave risks its technology may pose to humanity, The Washington Post reported.
July 11 - Legal Representation: AI music companies Suno and Udio have hired elite law firm Latham & Watkins to defend them against AI lawsuits filed by the three major labels in late June 2024, Billboard reported.
July 5 - Court Ruling: OpenAI and GitHub escaped legal claims from open-source software programmers alleging the AI coding tool Copilot replicated their code without proper copyright notices and licensing information, Bloomberg Law reported.
July 1 - New York Times vs. OpenAI: In a lawsuit twist, OpenAI wants The New York Times to prove it is the source of certain content, according to a letter from OpenAI's attorneys to a New York judge.
More: Continue to next page for additional AI-related lawsuits.
It is important to understand that while AI technology brings many benefits, there are also legal issues that need to be resolved, especially in relation to copyright. Hopefully, all parties can find a fair and balanced solution so that innovation can continue to thrive without compromising the rights of content creators. Thank you for the very informative information!