Encyclopedia Britannica Sues OpenAI: Unauthorized Use of 100k Articles for Model Training and Trademark Infringement

Encyclopedia Britannica and its subsidiary Merriam-Webster recently sued OpenAI in Manhattan federal court, accusing the latter of using nearly 100,000 of their online articles, entries, and dictionary definitions without permission to train ChatGPT. The complaint states ChatGPT's responses are almost verbatim copies of Britannica's content, diverting users from their website.

Additionally, Britannica alleges trademark infringement by OpenAI: implying authorized content use and AI hallucinations incorrectly citing Britannica as a source. The company demands compensation and an injunction against further infringement. OpenAI responded its models are trained on public data and follow fair use principles.

Notably, Britannica filed a similar lawsuit against AI search startup Perplexity AI last year, which is still pending.