OpenAI, the artificial intelligence (AI) company behind ChatGPT, is facing lawsuits for misusing vast amounts of personal data from internet users to train its AI tools.
important point
- OpenAI, the artificial intelligence (AI) company that developed ChatGPT, is facing lawsuits for misusing vast amounts of data on internet users.
- The plaintiff, a public-interest law firm called Clarkson, has sued in the past on issues ranging from data breaches to antitrust law.
- There is currently no agreed framework that defines fair practices when using private data to develop AI tools and applications.
The lawsuit was filed yesterday in federal court in California by Malibu-based public interest law firm Clarkson. Clarkson has filed class-action lawsuits in the past on issues ranging from employment disputes to data breaches to antitrust law. As the company’s website states, its mission includes “focusing on large-scale action that helps build a fairer, more equitable and just society for all.”
According to court filings, the lawsuit “arose from the allegations of the defendants.” [OpenAI] Illegal and harmful conduct in the development, marketing and operation of AI products. It uses stolen personal information from hundreds of millions of internet users without the user’s informed consent or knowledge. ”
Clarkson alleges in his lawsuit that OpenAI collects, stores, and discloses everything from users’ names, contact information, login credentials, Internet searches, social media information, and geolocation information. . By collecting millions of personal data and exploiting it to develop unstable and untested technology, OpenAI believes that “everyone is at immense risk, but responsible data protection and is unacceptable by any means of use,” said Clarkson partner Timothy Giordano. filing.
Given that most AI applications are still in the early stages of development, the legality of using data obtained from the internet to train AI tools remains unclear, and the framework for defining fair practices remains unclear. has not yet been developed and institutionalized.
Some developers argue that getting data from the Internet should be considered “fair use.” This is a copyright law concept that makes an exception to the use of personal data as long as the material is altered in a “transformative” way.
OpenAI is not alone in being accused of mishandling user data and mining public databases to train AI tools. Tech giants such as Facebook parent company Meta Platforms (META), Google parent company Alphabet (GOOGL), Apple (AAPL), Amazon (AMZN) and Microsoft (MSFT) have faced a number of such lawsuits in recent years. Ireland’s Data Protection Commission last month fined Metaplatforms €1.2 billion ($1.31 billion) for illegally transferring European internet users’ data to the United States.
Clarkson chose to pursue OpenAI, however, because it “played a role in inspiring larger rivals to push their own AI when it captured the public imagination with ChatGPT last year,” the company said. said in an interview with the Washington Post.
“They are the companies that started this AI arms race,” Clarkson added.
