AI Faces Copyright and Antitrust Reckoning
The increasing legal scrutiny over AI companies' use of copyrighted content signals a pivotal transformation in the industry, emphasizing the need for clearer frameworks around data usage and intellectual property. This trend represents a clash between traditional media entities and AI firms, where the former seeks compensation and control over their content, while the latter may face disruptions to their training models and operational practices. As regulatory bodies step in, both creators and consumers of AI technology will need to navigate a new landscape of compliance and ethical standards.
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EU opens antitrust investigation into Google’s use of online content for AI services
The European Commission launched a formal antitrust investigation into whether Google has used online content from publishers and YouTube creators to train and run its AI services—such as AI Overviews and AI Mode—on unfair terms. Regulators will examine if Google denied publishers and creators adequate compensation or the ability to opt out, while also barring rival AI developers from using YouTube data, potentially violating EU competition rules.
New York Times sues Perplexity AI over alleged large‑scale copyright violations
The New York Times Company has filed a federal lawsuit against Perplexity AI accusing the startup of copying, distributing and displaying millions of Times articles — including paywalled content — to power its AI search and chatbot products, as well as generating fabricated outputs falsely attributed to the newspaper. The case, joined by a parallel suit from the Chicago Tribune and building on earlier actions by Dow Jones and others, intensifies the clash between news publishers and AI firms over the uncompensated use of proprietary journalism in training and retrieval-augmented systems.
OpenAI ordered to hand over millions of ChatGPT logs in New York Times copyright case
An Indian reprint of a Reuters report notes that a U.S. magistrate judge in Manhattan has ordered OpenAI to produce about 20 million anonymized ChatGPT user chat logs in The New York Times’ copyright lawsuit against the company. The judge rejected OpenAI’s arguments that turning over the records would unreasonably compromise user privacy, saying existing protective measures in the case are sufficient, a ruling that could set an important precedent for discovery in AI training and copyright disputes.