A Supergroup of Writers Is Suing OpenAI for Theft

There’s a new threat coming to Westeros, and it goes by many names: ChatGPT, king of artificial intelligence, robber of words. Nothing strikes fear in the hearts of today’s writers more than the OpenAI platform. Thanks to some legislative ingenuity, however, we may finally have the power we need to smite our robotic usurpers. The simple explanation: If OpenAI showed ChatGPT novels so that it could learn about writing, then shouldn’t the company have licensed that material?

According to a new lawsuit filed by Game of Thrones creator George R.R. Martin, Jodi Picoult, John Grisham, George Saunders, and many more, ChatGPT should be accused of performing “systematic theft on a mass scale.” The group also claims that the AI program is a “flagrant and harmful infringement of plaintiffs’ registered copyrights,” and that much of their work used to “train” the AI was stolen from pirated e-book repositories. “Defendants could have paid a reasonable licensing fee to use copyrighted works,” the lawsuit states. “What Defendants could not do was evade the Copyright Act altogether to power their lucrative commercial endeavor, taking whatever datasets of relatively recent books they could get their hands on without authorization.”

As you read about the case, however, it feels like less of a plan to slay AI for good—and more of a fight to make sure writers just get their money. ChatGPT is crossing a lot of bridges on its path without paying any tolls, and writers simply want their due. Meanwhile, ChatGPT is hoping that it won’t have to cough up millions in cash to stay in business. According to AP News, a spokesperson for OpenAI stated that the company was having “productive conversations” with writers in the Author’s Guild. Allegedly, they’ve “been working co-operatively to understand and discuss their concerns about AI,” the statement reads. “We’re optimistic we will continue to find mutually beneficial ways to work together.” Just don’t let AI get their hands on our legal textbooks!

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