ANI Sues OpenAI At Indian Court For Use Of Unlicensed Content

JAKARTA India's news agency, ANI, filed a lawsuit against OpenAI at the New Delhi High Court on charges of using content he published without permission to train the ChatGPT artificial intelligence (AI) model. This lawsuit places ANI as part of a global trend in which media organizations are suing OpenAI for alleged copyright infringement.

In the inaugural hearing which took place on Tuesday 19 November, the court issued a notification to OpenAI to provide a detailed response to allegations made by ANI.

ANI's Charges Against OpenAI

In court documents filed on Monday, November 18, ANI accused OpenAI of using their content without official license and even attributing fake news to ANI through the ChatGPT service.

OpenAI's lawyers in India stated in an email correspondence that since September, the ANI website has been included in OpenAI's internal blocking list, so that its content is no longer used for future AI model training. However, ANI argues that the work already in use remains permanently stored in the "ChatGPT memory" without any programmed deletion mechanism.

OpenAI Responses And Next Steps

An OpenAI spokesperson said that the company is building an AI model using data available to the public in accordance with reasonable use principles and widely recognized legal precedents. OpenAI also stated that it had stopped the use of ANI content and continued to forge partnerships with various media organizations around the world, including in India.

ANI highlighted that OpenAI already has licensing agreements with media organizations such as the Financial Times and the Associated Press for the use of their content, but did not do so with ANI.

This case is part of a wave of lawsuits facing OpenAI from writers, visual artists, music publishers, and other copyright owners for alleged exploitation of their work without permission.

The court is scheduled to resume trial of the case on January 28, 2025.