OpenAI faces a new legal challenge from one of the world's oldest knowledge institutions. Encyclopedia Britannica has filed a lawsuit in federal court, alleging the AI company committed both copyright and trademark infringement in the creation of its ChatGPT system.

The complaint, first detailed by Reuters, states that OpenAI used Britannica's copyrighted material "at a massive scale" to train its AI models without permission. Beyond training data, Britannica contends that ChatGPT's outputs sometimes include full sentences or lengthy passages lifted directly from its articles.

On the trademark front, the suit argues that ChatGPT compounds the injury by generating inaccurate information and falsely attributing it to Britannica, damaging the publisher's reputation for accuracy. The encyclopedia is seeking a court order to stop the alleged practices, along with unspecified monetary damages.

In a statement to Engadget, an OpenAI spokesperson defended the company's approach: "Our models are trained on publicly available data and grounded in fair use. They empower innovation, helping advance research and improve daily lives for millions."

This is not Britannica's first legal action of this kind; last September, it sued the AI firm Perplexity on similar grounds. For OpenAI, the suit adds to an ongoing, high-profile copyright dispute with The New York Times, signaling that legal pressure on AI developers from content creators continues to intensify.

Source: Engadget