John Grisham, Jodi Picoult and George R.R. Martin are among 17 authors suing OpenAI for 鈥渟ystematic theft on a mass scale,鈥� the latest in a wave of legal action by writers concerned that programs are using their copyrighted works without permission.
In papers filed Tuesday in federal court in New York, the authors alleged 鈥渇lagrant and harmful infringements of plaintiffs鈥� registered copyrights鈥� and called the ChatGPT program a 鈥渕assive commercial enterprise鈥� that is reliant upon 鈥渟ystematic theft on a mass scale.鈥�
The suit was organized by the Authors Guild and also includes David Baldacci, Sylvia Day, Jonathan Franzen and Elin Hilderbrand among others.
鈥淚t is imperative that we stop this theft in its tracks or we will destroy our incredible literary culture, which feeds many other creative industries in the U.S.,鈥� Authors Guild CEO Mary Rasenberger said in a statement. 鈥淕reat books are generally written by those who spend their careers and, indeed, their lives, learning and perfecting their crafts. To preserve our literature, authors must have the ability to control if and how their works are used by generative AI.鈥�
The lawsuit cites specific ChatGPT searches for each author, such as one for Martin that alleges the program generated 鈥渁n infringing, unauthorized, and detailed outline for a prequel鈥� to 鈥淎 Game of Thrones鈥� that was titled 鈥淎 Dawn of Direwolves鈥� and used 鈥渢he same characters from Martin鈥檚 existing books in the series 鈥淎 Song of Ice and Fire.鈥�
In a statement Wednesday, an OpenAI spokesperson said that the company respects 鈥渢he rights of writers and authors, and believe they should benefit from AI technology.
鈥淲e鈥檙e having productive conversations with many creators around the world, including the Authors Guild, and have been working cooperatively to understand and discuss their concerns about AI. We鈥檙e optimistic we will continue to find mutually beneficial ways to work together to help people utilize new technology in a rich content ecosystem,鈥� the statement reads.
Earlier this month, a handful of authors that included Michael Chabon and David Henry Hwang sued OpenAI in San Francisco for 鈥渃lear infringement of intellectual property.鈥�
In August, OpenAI asked a federal judge in California to dismiss two similar lawsuits, one involving comedian Sarah Silverman and another from author Paul Tremblay. In a court filing, OpenAI said the claims 鈥渕isconceive the scope of copyright, failing to take into account the limitations and exceptions (including fair use) that properly leave room for innovations like the large language models now at the forefront of artificial intelligence.鈥�
Author objections to AI have helped lead Amazon.com, the country鈥檚 largest book retailer, to change its policies on e-books. The online giant is now asking writers who want to publish through its Kindle Direct Program to notify Amazon in advance that they are including AI-generated material. Amazon is also limiting authors to three new self-published books on Kindle Direct per day, an effort to restrict the proliferation of AI texts.
Hillel Italie, The Associated Press
