Indian news outlets accuse ChatGPT creator Open AI of using copyrighted content, matter in court

Digital news units of Indian billionaires Gautam Adani and Mukesh Ambani, and other outlets including the Indian Express and the Hindustan Times, are joining proceedings against

OpenAI for improperly using copyright content, legal papers show. Courts globally are hearing claims by authors, news organisations and musicians who accuse technology firms of using their copyrighted work to train AI services without permission or payment.

India has more than 690 million smartphone users thanks to cheap mobile data plans and OpenAI has said the country is a critical market.

The Indian media outlets, including Adani’s NDTV and Ambani’s Network18 have told a New Delhi court they want to join an ongoing lawsuit against the ChatGPT creator as they are worried their news websites are being scraped to store and reproduce their work for users of the powerful AI tool.

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Reuters was first to report the case filing by the news publishers, which escalates an ongoing legal battle against ChatGPT in India. In the most high-profile battle, local news agency ANI was first to file a lawsuit against OpenAI last year. Global and Indian book publishers have also joined the lawsuit.

The 135-page case filing, which is not public but was reviewed by Reuters, argues OpenAI’s conduct constitutes “a clear and present danger to the valuable copyrights” of Digital News Publishers Association (DNPA) members and other outlets.

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It refers to OpenAI’s “wilful scraping … and adaptation of content”, adding that “the disproportionate power of tech companies in prioritising content and extracting advertising revenue has raised concerns among publishers.”

The filing was made by the Indian Express, Hindustan Times, Adani’s NDTV and the DNPA, which represents roughly 20 companies including Mukesh Ambani Network18 and players like Hindi daily Dainik Bhaskar, Zee News, India Today Group and the Hindu. Many of these outlets have a flourishing newspaper and television news business too.

The Times of India is not part of the legal challenge despite being member of the DNPA, the filing said, without elaborating on the reasons.

Asked for comment, OpenAI reiterated an earlier statement that it was engaged in constructive partnerships with many news organisations, including in India, and was using publicly available data in a manner protected by fair use principles to build its AI models.

None of the Indian media companies involved immediately responded to Reuters request for comment.

The global AI market is expected to grow to $320 billion to $380 billion by 2027, expanding 25% to 35% each year, with the India market likely to follow that trend, according to Boston Consulting Group

and India’s tech lobby group NASSCOM.

LANDMARK INDIA CASE

In the United States, the New York Times sued OpenAI and its largest financial backer Microsoft in December 2023, accusing them of using millions of its articles without permission to train chatbots to provide information to users.

The new Indian intervention will add firepower to ANI’s lawsuit against OpenAI in India’s most high-profile legal proceedings on the issue.

A hearing in ANI’s lawsuit against OpenAI is scheduled for Tuesday.

Responding to the ANI case, OpenAI said in a court filing reported by Reuters last week that any order to delete training data would result in a violation of its U.S. legal obligations, and Indian judges have no jurisdiction to hear a copyright case against the company as its servers are located abroad.

Reuters, which holds a 26% interest in ANI, has said in a statement it is not involved in ANI’s business practices or operations. In recent months, OpenAI has signed deals with Time magazine, the Financial Times, Business Insider-owner Axel Springer, France’s Le Monde and Spain’s Prisa Media to display content.

The Indian publishers in their new filing argue OpenAI has entered into partnership agreements with media outlets abroad, but has not entered into similar deals in India, hurting the media companies.

Such conduct by OpenAI “in India betrays an inexplicable defiance of the law,” the Indian media outlets’ filing said.

The publishers also said OpenAI was set to become a profit-driven business benefiting from the creative works of the media industry. This would result in a “weakened press” and would not be in the best interests of a vibrant democracy, their filing said.

OpenAI made its first India hire last year when it tapped a former WhatsApp executive, Pragya Misra, to handle public policy and partnerships in the country of 1.4 billion people.
“India is really important because it’s the youngest demographic in the world … we’ve seen massive uptake of ChatGPT, it’s almost our second largest country in terms of users outside of the US,” Misra said in a recent interview with AIM TV.

OpenAI kicked off an investment, consumer and corporate frenzy in generative AI after the Nov. 2022 launch of ChatGPT. It wants to be ahead in the AI race after raising $6.6 billion last year.