ChatGPT using our content may lead to unfair competition: ANI to HC

OpenAI using ANI's content to train its large language model (LLM) leads to dilution of the news agency's market, thereby resulting in unfair competition, ANI told the Delhi High Court on Monday.

 

The court was hearing the plea moved by ANI Media against ChatGPT maker OpenAI in which the former has alleged that its content was illegally used to train its LLM and other artificial intelligence (AI) models.

 

Advocate Sidhanth Kumar, appearing for ANI, told the court that ChatGPT used its material to train the AI software, which is then stored and general access is provided to ANI’s content.

 

During the proceedings, Amicus Curiae Adarsh Ramanujan, said that language models were not designed as ‘truth machines’ but operated based on predictive algorithms. He said the language model did not use ANI’s data directly and ANI’s content was often published behind a subscription wall, yet its subscribers, who had varying levels of paywall restrictions, could republish the content.

 

Amicus curiae(literal translation ‘friend of the court’) is a person or organization that offers information or advice to a court, even though they are not a party to the case.

 

Addressing the legal implications of public accessibility, Advocate Ramanujan argued that the mere availability of content in the public domain did not nullify copyright protections. 

 

Expanding on text and data mining (TDM), he noted that other jurisdictions had introduced specific exceptions permitting such activities but the Indian law did not explicitly recognise these exceptions outside the fair use doctrine.

 

Meanwhile, ANI argued that it employed journalists globally to generate its content and maintained one of the largest video archives online.

 

"Subscribers were permitted to republish content without modifications or use excerpts, but they were not authorized to resyndicate or sublicense it further,” Kumar said. 

 

He urged the court to determine whether mere public accessibility granted OpenAI the right to use ANI’s content for training its models.

 

The court will continue hearing arguments on March 20.

 

Apart from ANI, several other domestic news publishers and their representative associations, media houses and music labels have sought to intervene in the case as petitioners.

 

In the last hearing, amicus curiae Arul George Scaria told the court that it has jurisdiction to hear the current suit.

 

Though the servers of Chat GPT are located outside India, they can be accessed from India. “It doesn’t matter where the servers are located…if they are accessed from Delhi(India)…so the court has jurisdiction(to hear the case),” Scaria told the court.

 

Among the issues to be considered by the court were the decision on the question of jurisdiction and whether the storage of ANI’s data would lead to copyright infringement, Scaria said.