OpenAI, a leading US tech firm specialising in artificial intelligence, is grappling with copyright lawsuits from prominent digital news publishers in India.
Approximately 20 organisations, including The Indian Express, Hindustan Times, NDTV (owned by Gautam Adani), and the Digital News Publishers Association (DNPA)—which represents major players like Mukesh Ambani’s Network18, Dainik Bhaskar, Zee News, the India Today Group, and The Hindu—have filed a case in a New Delhi court.
These publishers, many with long-standing newspaper and television operations, allege that their online content is being scraped to train OpenAI’s ChatGPT, infringing on their intellectual property rights.
According to The Indian Express, Reuters was the first to report on the case, which adds to ongoing legal battles concerning ChatGPT in India. Previously, local agency ANI and several global and Indian book publishers filed similar suits against OpenAI.
The 135-page case, reviewed by Reuters but not publicly disclosed, claims OpenAI’s practices pose “a clear and present danger to the valuable copyrights” of DNPA members and other publishers. While The Times of India, a DNPA member, has opted out of the case, courts worldwide are examining similar claims from news outlets, authors, and musicians.
In the US, The New York Times has sued OpenAI, alleging the misuse of millions of its articles to train chatbots, which now compete with the paper as an information source. The Times argues that chatbot responses to news queries divert readers, reducing web traffic and affecting advertising and subscription revenue.
Publishers warn that OpenAI, transitioning to a profit-driven model, risks undermining the press’s role in democracy by benefiting from media content without compensation.
OpenAI has yet to comment on the new allegations but maintains its AI systems make fair use of publicly available data.
