Hey everybody, welcome back to the Elon Musk Podcast.
This is a show where we discuss the critical Crossroads, The
Shape, SpaceX, Tesla X, The Boring Company, and Neuralink,
and I'm your host, Will Walden. The New York Times has filed A
lawsuit against Open AI and Microsoft, alleging the
unauthorized use to millions of its articles to train and
operate ChatGPT. Now this legal action is the
most recent among several filed by creators and publishers
including Sarah Silverman and author George RR Martin amongst
others. This is against tech companies
for using their work to develop large language AI models without
their permission. A central to these lawsuits is
the practice of scraping, which involves collecting vast amounts
of Internet data to train AI models like ChatGPT.
Web crawlers designed to index and download web content are
increasingly feeding AI models, raising concerns among creative
content creators about copyright infringement and fair
compensation. The New York Times claims its
content was significantly used in the Common Crawl data set,
which Open AII has admitted to using for training earlier
versions of Chan GBT. But legal experts are divided on
whether using Internet data falls under fair use.
That's the commercial use is a key in consideration.
Commercial use is a key consideration in determining
fair use. Now, many AI companies,
initially nonprofits eventually develop profitable products like
Open AI websites, have started blocking web crawlers to protect
their content. Now there's two methods to do
this. One's based on mutual respect
and another uses technology to identify and block bad behavior.
Bots that differ from human users and the reduction in
accessible data for web crawlers could benefit content creators
but might also hinder other users like researchers In the
past, web scrapers were used to collect data about competitors
and some people use them still for that.
But also you can get tracking and privacy data from these
trackers. And now there's an increased
reliance on web crawling for archiving digital content.
This modern technique captures online primary sources,
preserving them as historical records, and major publishers
have engaged in discussions with Open AI Now about licensing
content for AI training. However, reaching agreement on
pricing and terms has been challenging, indicating a
complex negotiating landscape, and confidential talks have been
ongoing between top US media companies and Open AI recently.
Organizations like Ghana News Corp and IAC have been part of
these discussions, according to sources very familiar with these
negotiations. Now, Microsoft, who's a huge
investor in Open AI with millions of dollars invested,
has also participated in these talks, and the talks have been
complicated by the rapid development of AI applications,
raising important questions about the future of the media
industry. Open AI has expressed respect
for content creators, rights, and the need for mutually
beneficial collaborations, as indicated in their deals with
The Associated Press and Axel Springer.
The media industry, having previously lost significant
advertising revenue to tech giants, is cautious about
undervaluing their content in deals with AI companies.
There's a concern about AI applications potentially
spreading misinformation by inaccurately citing articles.
Some news organizations have successfully negotiated deals
with Open AI, like The Associated Press and Axel
Springer. Like I said before, however,
companies like Bloomberg and the Washington Post have opted to
focus on their own AI strategies instead of collaborating with
Open AI Now. Despite these tensions, though
some industry executives acknowledge the potential
benefits of AI for journalism, the mutual dependency between
news organizations and AI firms shows that the need for a
balance and swift resolution for these disputes is needed.
The lawsuit underscores the growing tension between the
media industry and AI tech as well, potentially reshaping the
news landscape. And Microsoft and Open AI are
accused of using copyright content to train AI services
like ChatGPT allegedly causing significant financial damages.
Microsoft and Open AI have been silent in response to the
lawsuit. The case represents a major
challenge to Open AI's practice of scraping web content.
This is the common practice for ChatGPT since its debut, and the
company has attempted to secure licensing deals with publishers
to address all these issues. And now Open AI faces multiple
lawsuits from various content producers highlighting this
complex legal terrain. That's surrounding AI and
copyright right now, and the outcome of these cases could set
an important precedent for large language models and its
interaction with content creators.
And Microsoft is Open AI's largest supporter.
It's integrated the startups AI tools into its products, and the
lawsuit alleges that Microsoft's use of the New York Times
content has significantly boosted its market value.
Now, the New York Times spokesperson also emphasized the
legal requirement for obtaining permission before using their
work for commercial purposes, A requirement they allege
Microsoft and Open AI have not met.
And the resolution of this case could have significant
implications for the future of AI in relation to copyrighted
content. Hey, thank you so much for
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