OpenAI has dismissed allegations against it by The New York Times on Monday, asserting that the publication company's lawsuit holds no substance.
In a blog post, the creators of ChatGPT argued the magazine was presenting an incomplete narrative in its legal action, accusing OpenAI and Microsoft of employing millions of articles to refine their AI tools.
The AI giant also emphasized its commitment to supporting journalism and collaboration with news organizations. "Our goals are to support a healthy news ecosystem, be a good partner, and create mutually beneficial opportunities," it wrote.
Why Did The New York Times File a Lawsuit?
On December 27, The New York Times filed a lawsuit that sought "billions of dollars in statutory and actual damages" and demanded Microsoft and OpenAI delete any chatbot models or training data incorporating copyrighted material from the newspaper.
Filed in the Federal District Court in Manhattan, the legal action contends that the two tech giants utilized unauthorized articles to train chatbots, positioning them as competitors to the news outlet in providing trustworthy information.
In the blog post, the ChatGPT creator characterized the alleged "regurgitation" of content as originating from years-old material already available on third-party websites.
Additionally, the company asserted that the paper seemingly manipulated prompts, incorporating lengthy excerpts to induce their model to "regurgitate," a behavior that does not align with the typical response of their models.
"It seems they intentionally manipulated prompts, often including lengthy excerpts of articles, to get our model to regurgitate. Even when using such prompts, our models don’t typically behave the way The New York Times insinuates, which suggests they either instructed the model to regurgitate or cherry-picked their examples from many attempts," OpenAI argued.
It clarified that it had engaged in discussions with The New York Times before the lawsuit, aiming to establish a "high-value partnership" focused on proper attribution within ChatGPT responses.
While OpenAI regards the lawsuit to be without merit, it aims to improve its relationship with the news outlet.
"Still, we are hopeful for a constructive partnership with The New York Times and respect its long history, which includes reporting the first working neural network over 60 years ago and championing First Amendment freedoms," the company's statement concluded.