The Encyclopædia Britannica also joins the ranks of publishers who consider themselves plundered by Artificial Intelligence algorithms freely grazing the Internet, as voracious as locusts. According to what is a true emblem of Old World knowledge in the United Kingdom, about 100,000 online articles were acquired and used to train OpenAI’s language models, the leading software house in the AI advance, without any consent. Hence the lawsuit against the group led by Sam Altman.
THE ATAVISTIC HUNGER OF AI DOES NOT EVEN RESPECT BRITANNICA
As is well known, in fact, Artificial Intelligences need immense amounts of data to operate correctly, and it seems that software houses, to feed these very hungry algorithms, simply let them trawl the Web without worrying too much about copyright. The mild education that OpenAI supposedly wanted to impart to its AIs has not, in short, turned them into gentlemen. Also because, according to Britannica’s accusations, entire articles were copied in full, without ever asking for permission.
AI OFTEN DOES NOT UNDERSTAND AND BLAMES THE SOURCES
As is known, many Artificial Intelligences, precisely to make the act of plundering less visible, link to the sources, but even this modus operandi can prove harmful to those, like Britannica, who consider themselves victims of the rampant algorithms.
English lawyers, in fact, argue that every time an AI makes a mistake and prominently displays the link to the source, it suffers reputational damage in the eyes of the user who notices the error but does not investigate to understand whether the source ever conveyed incorrect information.
THE MANY LAWSUITS AGAINST OPENAI
Pressed by President Donald Trump, determined not to lose the hi-tech war with Beijing’s AIs, U.S. software houses so far have not worried about respecting copyright. OpenAI alone, besides Britannica, already has court dates with the New York Times, the publisher Ziff Davis (for material allegedly taken from sector publications like IGN, CNET and PCMag), bestselling fantasy writer George Martin (Game of Thrones), legal thriller author John Grisham, and even comedian Sarah Silverman, who claim that AIs have devoured their books to be schooled. Schooled, perhaps, but certainly not educated.
