Every AI copyright lawsuit in the United States has been filmed

In May 2020, Media and technology group Thomson Reuters has filed a lawsuit against a small artificial intelligence legal startup called Ross Intelligence, alleging that it violated US copyright law by reproducing material from Westlaw, Thomson Reuters’ legal research platform. With the pandemic raging, the lawsuit has barely registered outside the small world of nerds obsessed with copyright rules. But it’s now clear that this case — brought more than two years before the AI ​​boom began — was the first blow in history A much bigger war Between content publishers and AI companies is now unfolding in courts across the country. The outcome could make, break, or reshape the information ecosystem and the entire AI industry — and in doing so, impact almost everyone online.

Over the past two years, dozens of other copyright lawsuits have been filed against AI companies In a quick clip. The plaintiffs include individual authors such as Sarah Silverman and Ta-Nehisi Coates, visual artists, and media companies such as The New York Times, Music industry giants Like Universal Music Group. This broad group of rights holders allege that AI companies have used their work to train powerful and highly profitable AI models in a way that amounts to theft. AI companies often defend themselves by relying on what is known as… The principle of “fair use”.arguing that building AI tools should be considered a situation in which it is legal to use copyrighted material without obtaining consent or paying compensation to the rights holders. (Widely accepted examples of fair use include parody, news reports, and academic research.) Almost every major AI company has been drawn into this legal battle, including OpenAI, Meta, Microsoft, Google, Anthropic, and Nvidia.

WIRED is closely monitoring how each of these lawsuits unfolds. We’ve created visualizations to help you track and contextualize the companies and rights holders involved, where cases are being filed, what they’re claiming, and everything else you need to know.

That first case, Thomson Reuters v. Ross Intelligenceis still making its way through the court system. The trial, which was scheduled for earlier this year, has been postponed indefinitely, and although the cost of litigation has already put Ross out of business, it is unclear when it will end. Other cases, such as the closely watched lawsuit filed by The New York Times against OpenAI and Microsoft, are currently Controversial periods of discoverywhere the two parties argue about what information they need to hand over.