'Game of Thrones' author George RR Martin, others sue ChatGPT developer OpenAI

George RR Martin, the author of "Game of Thrones", along with other acclaimed fiction writers, have collectively initiated a class-action lawsuit against OpenAI, alleging the tech startup has infringed upon their copyrights in order to power its generative AI chatbot, ChatGPT, Barrons reported.

The Authors Guild, an association dedicated to representing authors' interests, along with a group of prominent novelists such as John Grisham and Jodi Picoult, have raised allegations against the California-based company. 

They claim that OpenAI utilized their literary works "without obtaining proper authorization" to train ChatGPT's "robust language models." These models are designed to generate text responses that closely mimic human language when responding to basic queries, as outlined in the lawsuit.

"And at the heart of these algorithms is systematic theft on a massive scale," said the complaint, filed Tuesday in a New York federal court. 

Numerous other lawsuits have been filed by artists, organizations and coders against OpenAI and its competitors, with the plaintiffs claiming their work has been ripped off.

OpenAI did not immediately respond to a request for comment from AFP.

The firm's language models "endanger fiction writers' ability to make a living, in that the (models) allow anyone to generate -- automatically and freely (or very cheaply) — texts that they would otherwise pay writers to create," Tuesday's complaint read.

ChatGPT can be used to produce "derivative works," imitating the style of writers, it added.

"Unfairly, and perversely, without Plaintiffs' copyrighted works on which to 'train' their (language models), Defendants would have no commercial product with which to damage -- if not usurp -- the market for these professional authors' works," the complaint said.

"Defendants' willful copying thus makes Plaintiffs' works into engines of their own destruction."

The Authors Guild and the writers are seeking a ban on the use of copyrighted books to develop language models "without express authorisation," as well as damages.

OpenAI has relied on mountains of texts found online to power its chatbot but has not specified exactly which sites and writings have been used.

OpenAI has been the subject of several complaints since the success of ChatGPT last year, including one from computer engineers who also sued Microsoft, its main investor, and the GitHub platform.

In January, artists filed a class-action lawsuit against DreamUp, Midjourney and Stable Diffusion, three image-generating AI models programmed with art found online.

Microsoft announced this month that it would provide legal protection for customers sued for copyright infringement over content generated by its AI tools.