'Game of Thrones' Author and Other Writers File Lawsuit Against ChatGPT

Europe 1 with AFP 10:23 am, September 21, 2023

George R.R. Martin, the author of the Game of Thrones saga, and other writers have launched a lawsuit against California-based startup OpenAI, which they accuse of using their works to create ChatGPT in defiance of their copyrights.

Complainants accuse ChatGPT of using their books 'without permission'

In the lawsuit filed Tuesday in federal court in New York, they accuse the company of using their books "without permission" to train its language model, the artificial intelligence (AI) technology behind ChatGPT, a software capable of producing all kinds of texts on simple request in everyday language.

"At the heart of these algorithms is systematic theft on a large scale," the lawyers say. Among the plaintiffs in this class action were the Authors Guild and several writers, including George R.R. Martin and novelist John Grisham.

Many other complaints have been filed by artists, organizations, and coders against OpenAI and its competitors.

"Copying the plaintiffs' work turns their works into engines of their own destruction"

The language models "endanger fiction writers' ability to make a living, as they allow anyone to automatically generate texts for free (or at very low prices) for which they would otherwise have to pay authors," the lawyers argue in Tuesday's complaint.

They also argue that generative AI tools can be used to produce derivative content that mimics the style of writers. "In an unfair and perverse way, (...) The deliberate copying (of the plaintiffs' work) thus transforms their works into engines of their own destruction," the complaint said.