As a day recorded in the history of AI and media sectors, the New York Times, a US stock listed company, filed a complaint with the Manhattan Court on December 27.It accuses Microsoft and OpenAI of using millions of the company's articles to train AI without authorization. This is alsoFor the first time in the history of the United States, a large media company has sued an AI leader. The direction of this case will also attract great attention from the technology and media industries.


(Complaint, source: court documents)

Although the New York Times did not request a specific amount of compensation, it emphasized in the complaint that the defendants should "Billions of dollars in statutory and actual damages. What’s more, the media group also demanded that Microsoft and OpenAIDestroy any chatbot and training data that uses New York Times copyrighted material.

The road to negotiation is long and only a few can make it

In fact, before this case attracted global attention, the New York Times had been in secret negotiations with OpenAI for several months. But obviously, the reason for the final lawsuit was that the money and conditions were not agreed upon.

In addition to the New York Times, there are currently a number of media giants also discussing copyright issues with OpenAI, includingGannett, the largest newspaper group in the United States, and the Murdoch familyNews Corp, Digital Rights Group IAC. People familiar with the matter have revealed that the News/Media Alliance, which represents more than 2,200 news organizations in North America, has been negotiating with OpenAI for several months on the media licensing agreement framework.

Of course, OpenAI has also finalized several media agreements in the past few months: In July this year, OpenAI reached an agreement with the Associated Press to use the news database, but specific financial details were not disclosed; the agreement reached between OpenAI and the German publisher AxelSpringer this month went a step further. Technology companies will be able to use the latest articles published by websites such as Politico and Business Insider, and will pay "performance fees" based on usage. According to people familiar with the matter, AxelSpringer can receive more than $10 million per year through this agreement.

Regarding the latest lawsuit, OpenAI spokesperson Kayla Wood issued a statement saying that OpenAI respects the rights of content creators and owners and believes they should benefit from artificial intelligence technology. The company is engaged in productive dialogue with institutions around the world and will continue to find mutually beneficial ways to collaborate to support a rich journalism ecosystem.

It's not just about money

For the media industry, especially large media groups that have just experienced the transformation from newspapers to digital media in the past two decades, the rise of AI is far more than just a copyright issue.

As the top successful example of paper media transformation, the 172-year-old New York Times currently has a market value of US$8 billion in the US stock market. At present, there are still a large number of media that have not been able to get out of the quagmire of transformation. The rise of Internet giants such as Google and Facebook has also severely damaged the vitality of many traditional media that rely heavily on advertising revenue.

From a media perspective, the rapid development of artificial intelligence applications in the past year has also made copyright negotiations difficult, because the advancement of AI has triggered issues such as "What is the future of the media industry?"

The media industry is also worried that artificial intelligence may quote their articles and then generate and disseminate inaccurate information, thereby affecting the company's reputation. As AIGC technology becomes more popular, anyone can easily mass-produce and spread false or false information.

Of course, in addition to negotiations and anxiety, some media groups with technical capabilities are also taking the third path of applying AI on their own. People familiar with the matter revealed that financial data and media platform Bloomberg is focusing on the company’s own AI projects. The Washington Post, owned by Amazon founder Bezos, has not initiated negotiations with OpenAI.