OpenAI Inc, the company behind ChatGPT, has been accused by an unknown group of collecting large amounts of user data in an uncaring pursuit of profit. They sued the corporation, claiming that their grievances should be treated as a class action.
According to Bloomberg, the 157-page lawsuit alleges that OpenAI broke privacy rules by illegally scraping 300 billion words from the internet. This content reportedly included personal information that was gathered without the plaintiffs’ knowledge or consent.
On Wednesday, a lawsuit against ChatGPT’s developer was filed in San Francisco federal court by the Clarkson Law Firm. They estimate damages at $3 billion.
The tweet below verifies the news:
OpenAI in trouble: ChatGPT creator sued for theft of ‘private data’https://t.co/wkTy5x4D07
— AiHunar (@AiHunar) July 4, 2023
“Despite established protocols for the purchase and use of personal information, Defendants took a different approach: theft,” they allege as quoted by Bloomberg News.
They claimed that hundreds of millions of people’s personal information was used to train ChatGPT and the company’s other products. As these products raise concerns about the future of the creative industries and the ability to separate fact from fiction, Congress is discussing the possibilities and perils of artificial intelligence.
Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, made a similar plea for AI regulation last month. The lawsuit claims that the corporation engaged in widespread covert site scraping in violation of service level agreements, state and federal privacy and property laws.
The lawsuit reads, “OpenAI illegally accesses private information from individuals’ interactions with its products and from applications that have integrated ChatGPT.”
“Such integrations allow the company to gather image and location data from Snapchat, music preferences on Spotify, financial information from Stripe and private conversations on Slack and Microsoft Teams,” it added.
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The plaintiffs further alleged that OpenAI no longer operates under the guiding philosophy of developing AI in a way that will have the greatest net positive impact on humanity.
Bloomberg estimates that the lawsuit will result in $200 million in income for ChatGPT in 2023. The plaintiffs have also requested that the court temporarily halt both sales and development of OpenAI’s software.
Keep up with the news and get some food for thought by visiting the website CaliforniaExaminer.net.
