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OpenAI filing says publishers body's case should be

dismissed

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AI company says concerned about media reporting related to

case

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OpenAI denies using original literary work in training its

large

language model

(Updates throughout with details from the court hearing on

Tuesday)

By Arpan Chaturvedi and Aditya Kalra

NEW DELHI, Jan 28 (Reuters) - Microsoft-backed OpenAI

sought to block on Tuesday India's biggest media organisations,

including those of billionaires Gautam Adani and Mukesh Ambani,

from joining a copyright lawsuit that is set to shape the legal

framework for AI in India.

Courts globally are hearing cases from authors, news

organisations and musicians who accuse technology firms of using

their copyrighted work to train artificial intelligence services

without permission or license. India is OpenAI's second-largest

market by number of users, after the United States.

In India, the case began with legal action last year by

local news agency ANI, and in recent weeks book publishers and

almost a dozen digital media outlets, including those owned by

Adani and Ambani, have sought to join the case to challenge the

AI giant.

Earlier on Tuesday, Reuters reported OpenAI had in a filing

sought to dismiss the book publisher's case, saying its ChatGPT

service only disseminates public information. Later in court,

OpenAI lawyer Amit Sibal said he would oppose the bid by media

organisations to join the case.

"I have an objection, I wish to file a reply," Sibal told

the court, referring to a written reply he would submit with

reasoning in due course.

The case will next be heard in February.

OpenAI maintains it only uses publicly available data in a

manner protected by fair use principles. Asked for comment on

Tuesday, it referred Reuters to its earlier statements and the

court filing challenging the book publishers.

OpenAI has also said, in its initial response to the ANI

case, that Indian judges have no jurisdiction to hear a case

against it as its servers are located abroad.

BOOK SUMMARIES AND EXTRACTS

During Tuesday's hearing, OpenAI's lawyer Sibal also sparred

with other opposing lawyers over media reporting on the lawsuit.

OpenAI objected to articles appearing in media which were

based on interviews and non-public court applications of book

publishers and Indian news groups, saying "reliefs are being

pursued in two courts, this court and the public court".

The lawyer for the digital news group, Ameet Datta, said

such allegations should not be made, calling them "really

unfortunate".

The Federation of Indian Publishers, which represents many

Indian companies and the likes of Bloomsbury and

Penguin Random House, has argued ChatGPT produces book summaries

and extracts from unlicensed online copies, hurting their

business, an allegation OpenAI denies.

Separately, digital news units of India's largest media

groups including the Indian Express and the Hindustan Times have

sought to join the lawsuit by arguing ChatGPT was scraping

content from their news websites to store and reproduce their

work for its users.

(Reporting by Arpan Chaturvedi and Aditya Kalra; Editing by

Edwina Gibbs and Emelia Sithole-Matarise)