OpenAI, the AI development company, defended its use of news content from ANI in the Delhi High Court on Tuesday, arguing that there is no copyright infringement in utilizing publicly available news for non-expressive purposes such as search functionalities in its software. The court is currently hearing a copyright infringement suit filed by ANI against OpenAI.
During the proceedings, OpenAI’s representative, senior advocate Amit Sibal, explained that the firm had already blocklisted ANI’s domain to comply with a previous court directive, thereby preventing the AI from training on ANI’s content. Sibal clarified that using the content for search differs from training as it does not reproduce ANI’s material verbatim.
Sibal stated, “The statement (made before the high court in November) says that the content is blocklisted for the purpose of training. When it is for search, it is different from training. It doesn’t reproduce any headlines. There is no violation in any way of the order passed by the court and there is no infringement since it (ANI’s content which comes after search) does not reproduce the material. No copyright in news that is freely available.”
On the other side, ANI’s counsel, advocate Siddhant Kumar, urged the court to favor their position, arguing that OpenAI continued to scrape content from subscriber websites to train its ChatGPT software. Kumar highlighted that distribution of ANI’s content under license does not forfeit its copyright, and OpenAI’s actions are allegedly infringing by using it without proper licensing.
The case has garnered attention from various industry groups, such as the Indian Music Industry, the Federation of Indian Publishers, and the Digital News Publishers Association, which support ANI’s stance. The outcome of this lawsuit could set a significant precedent regarding copyright laws’ applicability to AI-generated content and the protection of original news content in the digital era.
OpenAI, which has previously entered agreements with major publishers like News Corp and The Guardian for the use of their content in training its models, has not formed such partnerships in India. This legal battle highlights the complexities and challenges in defining the scope of fair use and copyright in the age of AI.
