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 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.
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.
Generative AI Lawsuits and Licensing Deals: June 2024 Updates
June 28 - European Union Scrutinizes OpenAI-Microsoft Deal: The European Union is escalating its scrutiny of the artificial intelligence industry, including taking a fresh look into Microsoft’s multibillion-dollar partnership with OpenAI, the Associated Press reported.
June 27 - Alleged Content Scraping: Amazon’s cloud division has launched an investigation into Perplexity AI, Wired reported/ At issue is whether the AI search startup is violating AWS rules by scraping websites that attempted to prevent it from doing so, the report said.
June 27 - New Lawsuit: The Center for Investigative Reporting -- parent of Mother Jones and Reveal, has sued ChatGPT maker OpenAI and Microsoft, marking a new front in the legal battle between news publications fighting against unauthorized use of their content on AI platforms, the Associated Press reported.
June 27 - OpenAI Content Partnership: TIME and OpenAI announced a multi-year content deal that brings TIME's content to OpenAI’s products, including ChatGPT. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
June 26- YouTube Content Licensing Deals?: YouTube is in talks with record labels to license their songs for artificial intelligence tools that clone popular artists’ music, hoping to win over a skeptical industry with upfront payments, Financial Times reported. Google, a key investor in AI startup Anthropic, owns YouTube.
June 25 - Anthropic Legal Case: Anthropic has convinced a Tennessee federal judge to move music publishers’ lyrics copyright lawsuit to a California district court, Bloomberg Law reported. The judge ruled the eight music publishers, which include Universal Music Group and Concord Music Group Inc., failed to prove the Tennessee court had personal jurisdiction, the Bloomberg report said.
June 24 - Music Industry Files Lawsuit: Some of the biggest record labels in the music industry have sued two AI startups -- Suno and Udio -- alleging that they have committed copyright infringement on an “almost unimaginable scale” by developing AI tools that can generate music tracks based on a user’s prompt within seconds, The Indian Express reported. The plaintiffs – Sony Music, Universal Music Group, Atlantic Records, Warner Bros, Capitol Records, and a few others – filed two separate complaints on June 24, the report noted.
June 14 - Proposed Lawsuit Settlement: Facial recognition company Clearview AI has agreed to resolve claims that it violated the privacy rights of millions of Americans, Reuters reported, reaching an unusual class action settlement based on a theoretical stake in the company's future value.
June 11 - AI Lawsuit Dropped: Tesla CEO Elon Musk dropped his lawsuit against OpenAI and co-founders Sam Altman and Greg Brockman, CNBC reported. In the suit, Musk alleged that OpenAI abandoned its social-good mission in order to focus on revenue opportunities.
Generative AI Lawsuits & Warnings: May 2024 Updates
May 21 - Potential Lawsuit: Actress Scarlett Johansson threatened legal action against OpenAI for allegedly copying and imitating her voice after she refused to license it to the company, The Hollywood Reporter said.
May 16- Lawsuit vs Lovo: Two voice actors sued AI startup Lovo in Manhattan federal court, accusing Lovo of illegally copying their voices and using them without permission in its AI voiceover technology, Reuters reported.
May 16 - Sony Music Warns AI Companies: Sony Music Group, one of the world’s biggest record labels, warned AI companies and music streaming platforms not to use the company’s content without explicit permission, Bloomberg reported. Sony Music sent letters to more than 700 companies in an effort to protect its intellectual property, which includes album cover art, metadata, musical compositions and lyrics, from being used for training AI models, the report said.
More: Continue to page two 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!