Copyright Claims Against AI

Soon after the explosion of ChatGPT, content creators began to raise concerns that their data was being used to help advance artificial intelligence (AI) without their permission. In 2023, The New York Times sued OpenAI and Microsoft, the companies that created and invested in ChatGPT, for copyright infringement, and others have since followed suit against an array of AI companies. OpenAI made headlines again in 2024 when it debuted an AI voice assistant that strongly resembled the voice of Scarlett Johansson, whom the company had previously approached to serve as the voice but who had declined. In 2024, academic publisher Taylor and Francis announced that it would allow Microsoft to train AI systems on its data without first notifying authors.

These developments have led to pushback on allowing AI developers to scrape data from the internet for their gain, such as in Singapore, where writers rejected a government proposal to use their work for AI training. Though Facebook and Instagram users in Europe can opt out of allowing Meta to use their public posts to train its AI services, no such option exists for U.S. users. Planners should stay updated on the development of these lawsuits, as they may have implications for AI use in their work.