Major publishers sue AI startup Cohere for copyright infringement.
Several media outlets, including Politico and The Atlantic, have sued an artificial intelligence startup called Cohere, accusing it of copyright and trademark infringement. The aim of this legal action is...
A group of prominent publishers, including Politico, Vox, The Atlantic, and The Guardian, has filed a lawsuit against the AI startup Cohere for alleged copyright and trademark violations. This legal action falls within the growing tension between content creators and AI algorithms that emulate such content.
The plaintiffs accuse Cohere of improperly using over 4,000 copyrighted works to train its language model. Furthermore, it is noted that the company has provided complete segments of articles to its users without proper attribution. According to Danielle Coffey, CEO of the News Media Alliance, which is leading the lawsuit, "Instead of creating their own content, they are stealing ours to compete with us without our permission or compensation, undermining our business that feeds their machines in the first place."
The lawsuit also claims that Cohere has committed trademark infringement, as its algorithm sends articles to users with correct attributions that include the publisher's name, but the resulting content contains inaccurate information. One case mentioned in the lawsuit refers to a Guardian article about Hamas's attack on the Nova music festival in Israel, which was incorrectly mixed by the AI with a 2020 shooting in Nova Scotia, Canada.
The publishers are seeking the maximum amount of damages allowed under the Copyright Act, which amounts to $150,000 for each infringed work. Additionally, the lawsuit aims to restrict Cohere's access to copyrighted works and establish legal precedent regarding the licensed use of journalism for AI, both for training and real-time uses.
Cohere, currently valued at $5 billion, has issued a statement defending its responsible training practices for its enterprise AI. The company asserts that its approach prioritizes control to reduce the risk of intellectual property infringement and respects the rights of rights holders. It also believes the lawsuit is erroneous and frivolous, and expects the matter to be resolved in its favor.
This is not the first time a publisher has taken legal action against an AI company. Previously, The New York Times sued OpenAI for copyright infringement, and other News Corp-affiliated media, such as The Wall Street Journal and New York Post, have also litigated against other AI companies. Recently, a judge ruled in favor of Reuters in a lawsuit against the AI company Ross Intelligence.