Authors, including Michael Chabon, Ta-Nehisi Coates, and Sarah Silverman, who are suing OpenAI for copyright infringement, have called on a California court to dismiss parallel lawsuits filed in New York by The New York Times and others. The authors argue that allowing these copycat lawsuits could result in inconsistent rulings and be a misuse of court resources. The California plaintiffs claim that OpenAI is engaging in "forum shopping" and "procedural gamesmanship" by seeking more favorable conditions in New York. The lawsuits center around allegations of copyright infringement by OpenAI's ChatGPT when generating summaries of authors' works.


Authors, including Michael Chabon, Ta-Nehisi Coates, and Sarah Silverman, who have filed a lawsuit against OpenAI for copyright infringement, are urging a California court to dismiss parallel lawsuits initiated by The New York Times (NYT), John Grisham, and others in New York. The authors argue that allowing these copycat lawsuits would result in inconsistent rulings in overlapping class actions and represent a misuse of valuable court resources.

The lawsuit against OpenAI was filed in July 2023 by comedian and author Sarah Silverman, along with authors Richard Kadrey and Christopher Golden. The plaintiffs allege that OpenAI's ChatGPT, in generating summaries of their work, indicates training via copyrighted content, leading to copyright infringement. The California plaintiffs have now raised concerns that the parallel lawsuits in New York closely resemble their own case, suggesting that OpenAI is engaging in "forum shopping" and "procedural gamesmanship" by seeking more favorable conditions in New York.

The court document, filed on Thursday, Feb. 8, highlights the potential for inconsistent rulings and emphasizes the importance of avoiding a misuse of court resources. The authors in California contend that the New York lawsuits are a strategic move by OpenAI following the California court's rejection of the proposed litigation schedule.

The core issue in these lawsuits revolves around allegations of copyright infringement by OpenAI's ChatGPT during the generation of summaries of authors' works. The California plaintiffs argue that the New York cases are essentially copycat lawsuits, raising concerns about the potential for varied legal outcomes across different jurisdictions.

Notably, several groups of copyright owners, spanning writers, visual artists, and music publishers, have filed lawsuits against tech companies, including Microsoft-backed OpenAI. These lawsuits allege the misuse of copyrighted material in training generative AI systems. While OpenAI, Meta, and others argue that their AI training is transformative and falls within the fair use copyright doctrine, copyright owners maintain that their works are being misused without proper authorization.

The legal landscape has become increasingly complex as technology companies navigate the boundaries of copyright law in the development and deployment of AI models. OpenAI's legal challenges underscore the broader debate surrounding the fair use of copyrighted material in the context of AI training.

As the legal proceedings unfold, the outcomes of these cases will likely have significant implications for the development and deployment of AI technologies and the relationship between technology companies and content creators.

(AMAKA NWAOKOCHA, COINTELEGRAPH, 2024)