One of 17 writers suing ChatGPT developer Open AI includes American novelist George R.R. Martin of the fantasy book “A Song of Ice and Fire,” which was turned into the HBO series “Game of Thrones.”
17 best-selling authors, including George R.R. Martin, David Baldacci, Jonathan Franzen, John Grisham, and Jodi Picoult, among others, filed a complaint against the AI generative business earlier this week in the federal court of Manhattan, New York.
The Authors Guild accused Microsoft-backed Open AI in the lawsuit of engaging in “systematic theft on a mass scale” by taking advantage of their copyrighted materials without their consent to train ChatGPT and other AI models.
For beginners, ChatGPT and other comparable large language models (LLMs), such as Google Bard, study a vast quantity of data that is typically accessible through online sources.
The lawsuit stated that the program created “an infringing, unauthorized, and detailed outline” for a “Game of Thrones” prequel titled “A Dawn of Direwolves” and even used the existing characters from Martin’s popular book series “A Song of Ice and Fire.”
The lawsuit cited the ChatGPT searches for authors.
Mary Rasenberger, the CEO of the Authors Guild, said in a statement: “It is imperative that we stop this theft in its tracks or we will destroy our incredible literary culture, which feeds many other creative industries in the US.”
“Great books are typically written by those who spend their careers, and, in fact, their entire lives, learning and honing their crafts,” she added. Authors need to be able to decide whether and how generative AI uses their works to preserve our literature.
The company’s spokesperson replied that they support “the rights of writers and authors” and think AI (artificial intelligence) technology would benefit everyone.
According to the company’s statement, “We’re optimistic we will continue to find cooperative ways to help people utilize new technology in a rich content ecosystem.”
“OpenAI does not want to replace creators,” said CEO Sam Altman.
