Digital news divisions owned by Indian billionaires Gautam Adani and Mukesh Ambani, alongside other outlets such as the Indian Express and the Hindustan Times, have joined legal proceedings against OpenAI, accusing the ChatGPT maker of improperly using copyrighted content, according to court filings.
Courts globally are hearing claims by authors, news organizations and musicians who accuse technology firms of using their copyrighted work to train AI services without permission or payment.
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.
The case filing by the news publishers, which escalates an ongoing legal battle against ChatGPT in India, was first reported by Reuters.
In the most high-profile battle, local news agency ANI was the first to file a lawsuit against OpenAI last year. Global and Indian book publishers joined on Friday.
The 135-page case filing, which is not public but was reportedly 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.
It refers to OpenAI's "wilful scraping ... and adaptation of content," adding that "the disproportionate power of tech companies in prioritizing 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 a member of the DNPA, the filing said, without elaborating on the reasons.
OpenAI did not respond to a request for comment on the allegations made by the Indian news outlets. It has repeatedly denied such allegations, saying its AI systems make fair use of publicly available data.
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 comments 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 kicked off an investment, consumer and corporate frenzy in generative AI after the November 2022 launch of ChatGPT. It wants to be ahead in the AI race after raising $6.6 billion last year.
It 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, where millions of new users are going online, thanks to cheap mobile data prices.
