In a significant legal development, leading Bollywood music labels—including T-Series, Saregama, and Sony Music—have filed a lawsuit against OpenAI in New Delhi. The lawsuit alleges that OpenAI has used their copyrighted sound recordings without authorization to train its AI models, including ChatGPT. This move underscores the growing global concern over the use of proprietary content in artificial intelligence training processes.
The Indian Music Industry (IMI) group, representing these labels, contends that OpenAI's practices infringe upon their intellectual property rights. They argue that the unauthorized use of their sound recordings for AI training not only violates copyright laws but also poses a significant threat to the music industry's economic interests. This lawsuit follows a similar action initiated by the Indian news agency ANI, which accused OpenAI of using its content without permission. Since then, other prominent media groups, including those associated with billionaires Mukesh Ambani and Gautam Adani, have joined the legal battle against OpenAI.
OpenAI, backed by Microsoft, maintains that it adheres to fair-use principles, utilizing publicly available data to train its AI models. In a recent court filing, the company asserted that it does not use content from Indian media groups for training purposes. OpenAI has also challenged the jurisdiction of Indian courts over its operations, emphasizing that it is a U.S.-based entity with servers located outside India.
The outcome of this lawsuit could have far-reaching implications for the use of copyrighted material in AI development, not only in India but globally. As AI technologies continue to evolve, the balance between innovation and intellectual property rights remains a critical and contentious issue.