Merriam-Webster and Encyclopedia Britannica have filed lawsuits against OpenAI, accusing the company of using nearly 100,000 of their copyrighted articles without authorization to train the AI model behind ChatGPT. The complaints, according to Quartz and Euronews, claim OpenAI’s use of this content violates intellectual property laws and was done without permission.
The lawsuits allege that ChatGPT replicates Merriam-Webster’s and Britannica’s curated, fact-checked material, which the companies argue causes significant revenue loss and threatens their business models. Fortune reports these claims highlight the impact of AI on traditional publishers as ChatGPT “absorbs and reproduces” their researched content.
Both Merriam-Webster and Britannica emphasize that OpenAI’s unauthorized data use has also ‘cannibalized’ their web traffic, potentially diverting users away from their original sources. The Independent adds that the cases underscore wider legal challenges emerging around the use of copyrighted content for AI training.
As described by Gizmodo and TechCrunch, these lawsuits are among a growing number of legal actions targeting AI developers over data rights, with speculation about similar claims to follow from other knowledge repositories. The cases could influence how AI training data is sourced and licensed moving forward.
Going forward, the lawsuits will test the boundaries of copyright law as it applies to AI, with courts expected to clarify whether current intellectual property protections extend to machine learning use cases. Industry observers are watching closely to see if these rulings reshape norms around data use and compensation in AI development.
Encyclopedia Britannica
Merriam-Webster
OpenAI
ChatGPT
