Sam Altman Criticizes New York Times Over AI Lawsuit

According to Decrypt, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has criticized the New York Times for its lawsuit against the AI developer, accusing them of copyright infringement. The lawsuit, filed in December, claims that OpenAI and Microsoft used New York Times articles to train AI models without proper licensing. Altman expressed his views during an interview with New York Times journalist Andrew Ross Sorkin at the DealBook Summit in New York City. Altman refrained from discussing specifics but suggested that the New York Times is on the wrong side of history regarding AI's role in the media industry. He emphasized the need for a fair system to compensate creators for the use of their work, proposing an opt-in model where creators could earn micropayments when their content is used to generate AI responses. The New York Times alleges that OpenAI prioritized their content when developing large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT, which are trained on extensive datasets to understand language patterns. OpenAI, however, disputes these claims, arguing that the Times manipulated prompts to make ChatGPT produce specific responses. The AI company contends that their models do not typically behave as the Times suggests, implying that the newspaper either instructed the model to regurgitate content or selectively chose examples. The lawsuit is part of a broader wave of legal actions against OpenAI, with other plaintiffs including authors George R.R. Martin, John Grisham, and comedian Sarah Silverman. Recently, a federal judge granted a motion by the Authors Guild to compel OpenAI to produce communications from employees who used social media for work purposes. Altman advocates for new economic models to support creators, suggesting that discussions on fair use need to evolve. He believes that creators should have opportunities for new revenue streams, aligning with a right-to-learn approach that balances innovation with fair compensation.