Welcome: Here is additional coverage of AI-related lawsuits.
Generative AI Lawsuits: January 2024 Updates, Licensing Agreements and Milestones
January 26 - FTC Investigates Generative AI Partnerships: The U.S. Federal Trade Commission has ordered OpenAI, Microsoft, Google's Alphabet, Amazon and Anthropic to provide information on recent investments and partnerships involving generative AI companies and cloud service providers, Reuters reported.
January 25 - Chip Lawsuit Settlement: Google settled a patent infringement lawsuit involving chips that power the company's AI technology, Reuters reported.
January 25 - George Carlin Estate Lawsuit: The George Carlin estate has filed a lawsuit against Dudesy, a media company behind the recent viral AI-generated hour-long comedy special “George Carlin: I’m Glad I’m Dead," Variety reported. The video featured an approximation of the late comedian’s voice and comedy style that was allegedly generated by a chatbot trained by Carlin’s own material, Variety said.
January 18 - Emerging AI Certification?: A new initiative will evaluate and certify AI products as copyright-compliant, offering a stamp of approval to AI companies that submit details of their models for independent review, Bloomberg reported. The certification is conducted by a nonprofit called Fairly Trained, founded by Ed Newton-Rex, who resigned in November 2023 as the VP of audio at Stability AI, Bloomberg noted.
January 17 - Anthropic's Request: Anthropic has asked a Tennessee federal court to reject infringement allegations by music publishers, Reuters reported. Anthropic said Universal Music, ABKCO and Concord Music Group "could not prove they were being irreparably harmed" by Anthropic's chatbot Claude and associated AI training on music lyrics, Reuters noted.
January 11 - Lawsuit vs. OpenAI Moves Forward: A Georgia Gwinnett County Superior Court Judge has denied OpenAI's motion to dismiss a lawsuit against the company:
January 8 - OpenAI Responds to New York Times Lawsuit: In a lengthy blog, OpenAI said it supports journalism, partners with news organizations, and believes The New York Times lawsuit is without merit.
January 5 - Another Lawsuit: Two nonfiction authors -- Nicholas Basbanes and Nicholas Gage -- filed suit against OpenAI and Microsoft in Manhattan federal court, alleging the companies misused their work to train AI models, Reuters reported.
January 4 - Attorney to Know: Matthew Butterick is leading a series of lawsuits against firms such as Microsoft, OpenAI and Meta, El Pais reported. Butterick is seeking to defend the copyrights of artists, writers and programmers, the report explored.
January 4 - Artist List Leaked: Lists containing the names of more than 16,000 artists allegedly used to train the Midjourney generative AI program have gone viral online, reinvigorating debates on copyright and consent in AI image creation, The Art Newspaper reported.
January 4 - OpenAI Content Licensing Offers: OpenAI has offered some media firms as little as between $1 million and $5 million annually to license news articles for use in training its large language models, The Information reported.
Lawsuits: 2023 Timeline, Licensing Agreements and Milestones
December 27, 2023: The New York Times sued Microsoft and OpenAI for alleged copyright infringement, claiming that the AI tools divert Internet traffic that "would otherwise go to the Times’ web properties, depriving the company of advertising, licensing and subscription revenue, the suit said," according to The Wall Street Journal.
December 13, 2023: OpenAI inked a multiyear licensing deal with Axel Springer, publisher of Business Insider and Politico.
October 2023: Three major music publishers — Universal Music Publishing Group, Concord Music Group and ABKCO — sued AI company Anthropic, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The publishers alleged that Anthropic infringed on copyrighted song lyrics by copying the text of the lyrics to train Anthropic’s models and allowing their models to generate text that is similar or identical to the copyrighted song lyrics, The Hollywood Reporter said.
August 2023: The U.S. Copyright Office issued a notice of inquiry (NOI) in the Federal Register on copyright and artificial intelligence (AI). The Office will use gathered information to "advise Congress; inform its regulatory work; and offer information and resources to the public, courts, and other government entities considering these issues."
July 2023: Multiple updates...
March 2023: The U.S. Copyright Office launched an initiative to examine the copyright law and policy issues raised by artificial intelligence (AI), including the scope of copyright in works generated using AI tools and the use of copyrighted materials in AI training.
February 2023: Stock photo provider Getty Images sued Stability AI in the United States, alleging that it had infringed on Getty’s copyrights, Reuters reported. Stability AI at the time said it doesn’t comment on pending litigation. Getty Images filed a similar suit against Stability AI in Europe in January 2023.
January 2023: Multiple updates...
Generative AI Timeline: 2022 Milestones
November 2022: OpenAI introduced ChatGPT -- setting off the generative AI boom.
October 2022: OpenAI licensed data from Shutterstock, and Shutterstock gained use of OpenAI technology, The Wall Street Journal reported. At the same time, Shutterstock opened a fund to compensate the artists whose work went into training the AI, the report said. Here's the official Shutterstock and OpenAI announcement.
Related: Generative AI and data center power requirements.
Note: Blog originally posted on December 28, 2023. Updated regularly thereafter.
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!
is the page not being updated anymore? i come back here every few weeks or so lol
Hi Bruno: I unplugged for a portion of May 2025 to rethink some of Sustainable Tech Partner's content strategy. The timeline is now updated to reflect milestones through June 15, 2025. Thank you for coming back for the updates, and for taking the time to post a comment. Best,
-jp
Can you update again to reflect the current status as of July?
Dear AvidReader: Thank you for your readership and the nudge. We've updated the article as of July 29. 2025. -jp
This timeline is great and all, but it doesn't answer a bigger question I've been pondering, which is how do we stop the likes of Jensen Huang, Lisa Su, Sam Altman and others from just having their way unchecked. The latest news has been about their seemingly uncontrolled data center construction projects causing harm to the residents and neighbors of said projects. People are complaining about their health being impacted and difficulties with greatly increased electricity bills. We've got the whole thing going on now with the RAM and storage prices just going up and up and up with no obvious limit in sight. How do we stop these trillion-dollar corporations cold? How do we make them stop with all this? Surely there has to be a way to force them to heel. How do we put these damned CEOs down, once and for all, for the good of mankind and the planet? Those are my concerns and thanks for any replies.
Hi Stephen: Thanks for your readership and comments. I understand and empathize with many of your concerns. But I don't see those executives & their corporations as all bad or all good. I believe there are nuances.
I don't see a need to "put these damned CEOs down, once and for all, for the good of mankind and the planet," as you state.
I do see valid concerns about electricity bills, seemingly uncontrolled data center projects, health, and rising technology prices.
In those areas, a growing number of towns and municipalities are voting no or pushing back against data center initiatives. As USA Today reported, Surging electricity rates put data centers on 2026 ballot.
And Microsoft, for instance, has vowed to pay its own way to ensure Microsoft data centers don't trigger rising electricity prices for local communities.
I'd encourage you to reach out to your local government representatives to express your concerns. And to vote in every election. And to join grass roots groups that are organizing against runaway Big Tech projects.
But I'd also encourage you and all readers to gather all sides of the story. How are certain data centers and their associated applications truly helping humankind? How are certain sustainable IT businesses ensuring that data centers mitigate or at least minimize their environmental impact?
Thousands of hardworking, ethical people work for Big Tech, midsize tech and small tech. I encourage our readers to keep those hardworking folks and their authentic missions in mind: Scientific research. Climate research. Health care. And so much more.
Thank you again for taking the time to express your concerns and views.
-jp