Encyclopedia Britannica sues OpenAI: ‘They are cannibalizing us’

Nearly 100,000 articles have been illegally copied, Britannica claims, adding that ChatGPT produces “almost verbatim” copies of its encyclopedia entries, dictionary definitions and other content and ‘steals’ users.

OpenAI has also been accused of intellectual property theft and misquoting a British woman in fake AI “hallucinations”. The term encompasses inaccurate AI responses to a query, ranging from inconsistencies to fabricated or contradictory information.

Britannica is seeking monetary damages, an unspecified amount, and an injunction to block what it says is an illegal practice.

Spokesmen and lawyers for Britannica did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment on the lawsuit.

The spokesperson of OpenAI said that their models are “based on innovation, trained on publicly available data and based on fair use”.

Owners of copyrights, including authors and newspapers, submitted several a series of lawsuits against technology companies for the unauthorized use of their material for training artificial intelligence systems.

Last year, Britannica filed a similar lawsuit against artificial intelligence startup Perplexity AI.

As a rule, artificial intelligence companies are responsible for ensuring that their systems use copyrighted content in good faith, transforming it into something new, according to Reuters.