Authors Sue Microsoft Over Alleged Piracy in AI Training

A group of authors, including Kai Bird, Jia Tolentino, and Daniel Okrent, has accused Microsoft of using nearly 200,000 pirated books to create an artificial intelligence model. The lawsuit, filed in New York federal court, is part of a broader legal battle over the use of copyrighted works in AI training.

The authors allege that Microsoft used pirated digital versions of their books to teach its Megatron AI to respond to human prompts. They are seeking a court order to block further infringement and statutory damages of up to $150,000 for each work allegedly misused.

Generative AI products like Megatron produce text, music, images, and videos in response to user prompts. To create these models, software engineers gather large databases of media to program the AI to produce similar output. The complaint states that Microsoft used a collection of nearly 200,000 pirated books to train Megatron, resulting in a computer model that mimics the syntax, voice, and themes of the copyrighted works.

Spokespeople for Microsoft did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the lawsuit. An attorney for the authors declined to comment.

The legal fight over copyright and AI has been ongoing since the debut of ChatGPT. It encompasses various media types. The New York Times has sued OpenAI for copyright infringement on its archive of articles, and Dow Jones, the parent company of the Wall Street Journal and the New York Post, has filed a similar suit against Perplexity AI. Major record labels have also sued companies making AI-powered music generators, and photography company Getty Images has filed suit against Stability AI over its text-to-image product.

Just last week, Disney and NBC Universal sued Midjourney, a popular AI image generator, for alleged misuse of famous movie and TV characters. Tech companies argue that they make fair use of copyrighted material to create transformative content, and that being forced to pay copyright holders could hinder the AI industry.

Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, has stated that the creation of ChatGPT would have been 'impossible' without the use of copyrighted works. The legal landscape surrounding AI and copyright continues to evolve, with recent rulings in favor of tech companies in similar disputes. However, the authors' lawsuit against Microsoft adds another layer of complexity to the ongoing debate.

The outcome of these cases will have significant implications for the future of AI and the rights of content creators. As the legal battles continue, the tech industry and creative professionals remain at odds over the ethical and legal boundaries of AI training.