Key Takeaways
- OpenAI is facing a series of legal issues related to copyright infringement and using other codes for ChatGPT.
- Key plaintiffs include the New York Times and Elon Musk.
- OpenAI’s cases are part of a broader legal trend against big tech corporations.
The Center for Investigative Reporting’s lawsuit against OpenAI is one in a series of disputes around ChatGPT.
Among the plaintiffs taking legal action against OpenAI are prominent entities like the New York Times and Elon Musk, alongside smaller players within the media industry.
Below is an overview of the primary legal disputes entangling OpenAI. However, some copyright cases will be consolidated.
Full List Of OpenAI Lawsuits
Here’s a full list of OpenAI lawsuits – both started by OpenAI or by other plaintiffs – as of April 7, 2025:
| Plaintiffs |
Allegation |
Status |
| Indian digital news outlets vs. OpenAI – Jan. 27, 2025 |
Copyright Infringement And Unauthorized Data Use |
Ongoing |
| Asian News International vs. OpenAI – Dec. 5, 2024 |
Copyright Infringement And Unauthorized Data Use |
Ongoing |
| Elon Musk and xAI vs. OpenAI and Sam Altman – Nov. 29, 2024 |
Antitrust Violations |
Ongoing |
| Authors vs. OpenAI – July 30, 2024 |
Copyright Infringement |
Dismissed |
| Daily News Lp vs. OpenAI and Microsoft – April 30, 2024 |
Copyright Infringement |
Ongoing |
| Elon Musk vs. OpenAI and Sam Altman – Feb. 29, 2024 |
Breach Of Contract |
Ongoing |
| The New York Times Company vs. Openai – Dec. 27, 2023 |
Copyright Infringement |
Ongoing |
| Sancton vs. OpenAI – Nov. 21, 2023 |
Copyright Infringement |
Ongoing |
| Authors Guild vs. OpenAI – Sept. 19, 2023 |
Copyright Infringement |
Ongoing |
| Chabon vs. OpenAI – Sept. 8, 2023 |
Copyright Infringement |
Ongoing |
| T. vs. OpenAI – Sept. 5, 2023 |
Breach Of Privacy Laws |
Ongoing |
| OpenAI vs. Open Artificial Intelligence, Inc. – Aug. 4, 2023 |
Trademark Infringement |
Ongoing |
| Walters vs. OpenAI – July 14, 2023 |
Misinformation |
Ongoing |
| Silverman vs. OpenAI – July 7, 2023 |
Copyright Infringement |
Ongoing |
| Tremblay vs. OpenAI – June 28, 2023 |
Copyright Infringement |
Ongoing |
| PM vs. OpenAI – June 28, 2023 |
Privacy Infringement And Unauthorized Data Use |
Ongoing |
| Doe 3 vs. OpenAI and GitHub- Nov. 10, 2022 |
Breach Of Contract |
Ongoing |
| Doe 1 vs. OpenAI and GitHub – Nov. 3, 2022 |
Breach Of Contract |
Ongoing |
The table has been compiled based on data provided by Originality.ai and fact-checked by CCN.
Copyright Cases To Be Consolidated
A U.S. judicial panel has decided to consolidate several copyright cases against OpenAI and its backer, Microsoft, in New York. The lawsuits, filed by authors like Ta-Nehisi Coates and Sarah Silverman and news outlets like The New York Times, will be joined with similar cases.
While OpenAI proposed consolidating the cases in California, most plaintiffs opposed it. OpenAI’s spokesperson defended its use of publicly available data under fair use.
On the other side, New York Times attorney Steven Lieberman of Rothwell Figg said the company looked forward to “continuing to prove in New York that Microsoft and OpenAI committed widespread theft” of its work.
The cases focus on whether tech companies like OpenAI and Microsoft unlawfully used copyrighted materials to train AI systems.
Indian Outlets Accuse OpenAI Of Scraping Content
Indian billionaires Gautam Adani and Mukesh Ambani’s digital news outlets, including NDTV and Network18, are joining a legal battle against OpenAI for allegedly using their copyrighted content without permission.
The lawsuit , filed in New Delhi, accuses OpenAI of scraping content from Indian media websites to train its AI models. This move adds to an ongoing legal dispute in India, originally started by local news agency ANI .
The plaintiffs argue that OpenAI’s actions threaten the copyright interests of news publishers and have raised concerns about the tech giant’s dominance and its impact on the media industry.
OpenAI, however, defends its use of publicly available data under fair use principles. This legal challenge coincides with the rapid growth of AI in India, a key market for OpenAI.
A legal setback emerged on Tuesday, July 30, 2024, for a group of authors suing OpenAI for unauthorized use of their works to train the ChatGPT AI chatbot.
Despite claims that OpenAI engaged in unfair business practices by using copyrighted material without compensation, a federal judge has narrowed the scope of the case. While the core allegation of direct copyright infringement remains, other claims, including those for unfair competition, have been dismissed.
The court ruled that the Copyright Act preempts state-level claims related to copyrighted material, effectively blocking the authors’ attempt to bypass copyright law. This decision represents a significant hurdle for the plaintiffs seeking to hold OpenAI accountable for allegedly profiting from their work without permission.
The case, which involves high-profile authors such as Sarah Silverman and Ta-Nehisi Coates, is closely watched as it could set a precedent for future disputes over AI training data.
Investigative Journalists Sue OpenAI
The Center for Investigative Reporting, producer of Mother Jones and Reveal, sued OpenAI and its largest shareholder, Microsoft, in federal court for using nonprofit content without permission or compensation.
CIR, a non-profit newsroom in the US, has registered its copyright for nearly 50 years and focuses on investigative reporting. The lawsuit highlights how AI-generated summaries of articles threaten publishers.
“OpenAI and Microsoft started using our stories to enhance their product without permission or compensation,” said CIR CEO Monika Bauerlein. “This free-rider behavior violates copyright and undervalues journalists’ work.”
CIR said AI products gain value from diverse viewpoints and human creativity. “CIR’s unique focus on social justice and power abuses makes its content particularly valuable.”
“For-profit corporations like OpenAI and Microsoft can’t treat-profit publishers’ work as free raw material,” Bauerlein added. “If unchecked, this practice will limit public access to truthful information, replaced by AI summaries,” CIR added.
The lawsuit, based on violations of the Copyright Act and the Digital Millennium Copyright Act , was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.
Elon Musk vs. OpenAI
Elon Musk lodged a complaint alleging that Sam Altman and fellow OpenAI co-founder Gregory Brockman had violated the terms of an agreement established when OpenAI was established in 2015.
At the project’s inception, Musk contributed a substantial portion of the initial funding to OpenAI, which was conceived as a non-profit research organization dedicated to the development of responsible AI systems.
However, Musk has now taken legal action against Altman and Brockman, asserting they breached the contract after OpenAI transitioned into a for-profit entity in 2019.
The complaint contends that OpenAI’s foundational principles, which were initially established in collaboration with Microsoft, have been disregarded.
Contrary to its original ethos as an anonymous open-source initiative, the lawsuit alleges that the new iteration of OpenAI has evolved into a closed-source entity effectively controlled by the world’s largest technology company.
Musk’s lawsuit claims that Altman and Brockman were obligated, under the founding agreement, to develop AI technologies “for the benefit of humanity” rather than for personal or corporate gain.
However, the introduction of the GPT-4 language model signifies, according to the suit, a significant departure from this mission, constituting a breach of the founding agreement.
Latest Development
On Monday, Aug. 5, 2024, Elon Musk revived his lawsuit against ChatGPT creator OpenAI and its CEO, Sam Altman, alleging that the company prioritizes profits over the public good.
This legal action represents Musk’s ongoing opposition to the startup he co-founded in 2015 and departed from three years later.
Since his departure, OpenAI has emerged as a leading figure in generative AI, while Musk founded a competing startup, xAI, which was valued at $24 billion in May.
The lawsuit seeks a judicial ruling that OpenAI’s licensing agreement with Microsoft to use its AI models is invalid. Musk argues that the language models exceed the scope of OpenAI’s partnership with Microsoft.
Filed in the Northern District of California, the suit mirrors one Musk initiated in February but withdrew in June, just a day before a judge was scheduled to hear OpenAI’s motion to dismiss the case.
Musk Aims to Block Conversion To For-Profit Company
Elon Musk has intensified his legal confrontation with OpenAI, filing a court injunction to block the company’s shift to a for-profit model.
Musk argues that this transition is “illegal” and raises concerns about the potential market dominance of OpenAI’s ChatGPT, which he believes could harm competitors, including his own AI company, xAI.
In legal documents, Musk accuses OpenAI and its CEO, Sam Altman, of abandoning the nonprofit mission they originally shared when founding the organization in 2015.
He asserts that OpenAI’s acceptance of billions in funding from Microsoft in 2019 signified a shift toward profit-driven objectives, moving away from its original goal of advancing AI for the benefit of society.
Musk’s legal team argues that OpenAI has turned into a monopolistic entity, stating:
“It cannot lumber about the marketplace as a Frankenstein, stitched together from whichever corporate forms serve the pecuniary interests of Microsoft and Altman at any given moment.”
Additionally, Musk accuses OpenAI of making agreements that, he claims, violate federal antitrust laws, including contracts that restrict funding for potential competitors.
New York Times Complaint Over Copyright Infringement
The New York Times has initiated legal action against OpenAI and its technology giant investor for copyright infringement.
The lawsuit asserts that these entities utilized millions of articles from the newspaper without proper authorization to train their artificial intelligence (AI) models, including the widely recognized AI platforms ChatGPT and Copilot.
The New York Times contends that OpenAI and its AI models, fueled by large language models (LLMs), have produced output that mirrors Times content verbatim, closely summarizes it, and imitates its distinctive style.
The newspaper claims that using its work without permission to develop AI models is a blatant copyright infringement and seeks billions in damages.
Copyright Infringement
OpenAI vs. Open Artificial Intelligence
In a role reversal, OpenAI filed a lawsuit against Open Artificial Intelligence , Inc. on Aug. 4, 2023, in the Northern District of California, alleging trademark infringement and unfair competition for using the “Open AI” mark.
OpenAI claimed this has caused “irreparable harm” by damaging its reputation and confusing consumers. They seek a permanent injunction, damages, and legal fees.
On Feb. 28, 2024, OpenAI won a preliminary court ruling in California to block another company, Open Artificial Intelligence Inc., from using the “Open AI” trademark.
U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers ruled that Open Artificial Intelligence’s branding would likely confuse consumers and infringe on OpenAI’s rights.
She noted OpenAI’s trademark is widely recognized, while Open Artificial Intelligence’s website was largely inactive until just before the lawsuit began.
OpenAI sued in August, alleging Open Artificial Intelligence applied for the “Open AI” trademark after OpenAI’s 2015 launch to create confusion. Open Artificial Intelligence owns the domain “open.ai,” which now hosts an AI text-to-image generator but was redesigned to resemble OpenAI’s site.
Emails disclosed in the case showed OpenAI attempted to buy the domain in 2015 and 2022, with the latter offer met by demands for a multimillion-dollar donation. Judge Rogers found evidence of consumer confusion and rejected Open Artificial Intelligence’s claim to superior trademark rights.
Older Legal Issues
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