Encyclopedia Britannica Sues OpenAI: Illegally Copied 100k Articles to Train ChatGPT

Encyclopedia Britannica and its subsidiary Merriam-Webster recently sued OpenAI in Manhattan federal court, accusing it of using nearly 100,000 articles without permission to train ChatGPT, leading to diverted website traffic. The lawsuit claims ChatGPT's generated content is almost verbatim to Britannica's entries and also implies authorized copying, infringing trademark rights.

This is one of many lawsuits by copyright holders against AI companies for using materials without permission to train models. Britannica sued Perplexity AI last year, and the case is still pending. AI companies argue secondary creation is fair use, but Britannica is seeking financial compensation and an injunction to stop the infringement.