News agency ANI filed a lawsuit against OpenAI in 2024. File
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Digital news units of billionaires Gautam Adani and Mukesh Ambani, and other outlets such as TheIndian Express and the Hindustan Times, have mounted a legal challenge against OpenAI’s improper use of copyright content, legal papers show.

The filing of the case by the digital news publishers escalates an ongoing legal battle against ChatGPT. In the most high-profile battle, news agency ANI filed a lawsuit against OpenAI in 2024. In addition to the local publishers, global book publishers have also now joined in.

The 135-page case filing in the New Delhi court, which is not public but was reviewed by Reuters, argues OpenAI’s conduct constitutes “a clear and present danger to the valuable copyrights” of Digital News Publishers Association (DNPA) members and other outlets. It refers to OpenAI’s “wilful scraping … and adaptation of content.”

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Courts across the world are hearing claims by authors, news outlets and musicians who accuse technology firms of using their copyright work to train AI services and who are seeking to have content used to train the chatbot deleted.

OpenAI did not respond to a request for comment on the new allegations. It has repeatedly denied such allegations, saying its AI systems make fair use of publicly available data. None of the media companies immediately responded to Reuters request for comment.