New York Times May Sue OpenAI Over Chat GPT Data Scraping

Depending on where you stand, ChatGPT is a godsend or a harbinger of the end times. 

It's safe to say that The New York Times considers itself in the latter category, as it may be the latest aggrieved party to sue ChatGPT's developer Open AI. A potential lawsuit comes after months of negotiations between OpenAI and the Times broke down over licensing agreements and how that would potentially train the algorithms that power Open AI.

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ChatGPT Changed Everything

Since bursting onto the scene earlier this year, ChatGPT has become an invaluable asset to many businesses, and the ultimate cheat code for less-than-honorable college students and writers looking for a helping hand. ChatGPT is capable of turning out impressive material when prompted with a simple question by users.

The issue in the potential suit by the Times is exactly how ChatGPT goes about providing such detailed search results. ChatGPT runs on algorithms that both seek information and use the information it discovers to constantly improve the quality of its answers to search queries.

Is Data Scraping The Secret To ChatGPT's Success?

This tactic is sometimes referred to as data scraping, and many tech companies are suspected of doing it. Depending on your perspective, ChatGPT's generative artificial intelligence (AI) has taken data scraping to a new level, or data scraping has facilitated ChatGPT's generative AI's quantum leap to a new level by creating a search engine with nearly infinite potential.  

ChatGPT has become so proficient at delivering quality answers to user questions that it now powers the results on Microsoft Corp.'s Bing search engine. Microsoft was one of the largest investors in OpenAI. This could have serious implications for news providers like The New York Times.

News And Content Providers See A Potential Threat

As ChatGPT becomes more effective at yielding search engine results, users may not need The New York Times at all. If (theoretically), ChatGPT's algorithms are secretly scraping data from New York Times articles for their search results, a user could get a summary to their query based on work by the Times and never click through to its website.

This could pose an existential threat to news and content providers who operate behind paywalls or have special content for subscribers. AI is becoming a more prevalent part of nearly every industry. Startups like Jurny are becoming AI-based Airbnb management systems. It's not too different than the threat Google search results posed to brick-and-mortar businesses that were still using traditional advertising methods in the early 2000s.

The Stakes Could Be Very High In A ChatGPT Lawsuit

The New York Times wants to be sure that ChatGPT isn't using its content to put it out of business. If the lawsuit is filed, the results will set a precedent that has an immeasurable impact on the future of ChatGPT and generative AI. No matter what your feelings are on ChatGPT, if you're an investor, it's a good idea to watch this space closely.  

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