OpenAI to Face Ambani's News 18 and Adani's NDTV in a Copyright Battle

Indian billionaires Gautam Adani and Mukesh Ambani's digital news units, as well as other outlets such as the Indian Express and the Hindustan Times, are suing OpenAI for improper use of copyright content.

Courts around the world are hearing claims from authors, news organisations, and musicians accusing technology companies 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 because they are concerned their news websites are being scraped to store and reproduce their work for users of the powerful  AI tool.

In the most publicized battle, local news agency ANI was the first to file a lawsuit against OpenAI last year. On Friday, global and Indian book publishers teamed up.

The 135-page case filing, which is not public but was reviewed by Reuters, claims that OpenAI's actions pose "a clear and present danger to the valuable copyrights" of Digital News Publishers Association (DNPA) members and other outlets.

It alludes to Open AI's "wilful scraping ... and adaptation of content" , and it states that "the disproportionate power of tech companies in prioritising 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 approximately 20 companies, including Mukesh Ambani Network18 and players such as Hindi daily Dainik Bhaskar, Zee News, India Today Group, and the Hindu. Many of these outlets have thriving newspaper and television news operations.

The Times of India is not involved in the legal challenge despite being a member of the DNPA, according to the filing, without explaining why. OpenAI did not respond to a request for comment on the allegations made by Indian media outlets. It has repeatedly denied such allegations, claiming that its AI systems make appropriate use of publicly available data.

LANDMARK INDIA CASE In the United States, the New York Times sued OpenAI and its biggest 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 strengthen ANI's lawsuit against OpenAI, which is one of India's most high-profile legal proceedings on the subject. A hearing in ANI's lawsuit against OpenAI is set for Tuesday.

In response to the ANI case, OpenAI stated in comments reported by Reuters last week that any order to delete training data would violate its legal obligations in the United States, and Indian judges lack jurisdiction to hear a copyright case against the company because its servers are located outside of India.

Reuters, which owns a 26% stake in ANI, said in a statement that it is not involved in the company's business practices or operations.

In recent months, OpenAI has signed content distribution agreements with Time magazine, the Financial Times, Axel Springer, the owner of Business Insider, France's Le Monde, and Spain's Prisa Media.

In their new filing, the Indian publishers argue that OpenAI has entered into partnership agreements with media outlets around the world but has not done so in India, which is harming the media companies.

Such behavior by OpenAI "in India betrays an inexplicable defiance of the law," according to the filing by Indian media outlets.

The publishers also stated that OpenAI was on track to become a profit-driven business that would benefit from the media industry's creative efforts. According to their filing, this would result in a "weakened press" and would be detrimental to a healthy democracy.

Following the launch of ChatGPT in November 2022, OpenAI sparked an investment, consumer, and corporate frenzy in generative AI. It wants to lead the AI race after raising $6.6 billion last year.

It made its first India hire last year, hiring Pragya Misra, a former WhatsApp executive, to manage public policy and partnerships in the country of 1.4 billion people, where millions of new users are coming online due to low mobile data prices.