OpenAI promises to fund legal costs for ChatGPT business users sued over copyright
OpenAI has announced that it is going to do something very special to protect its users from copyright issues.
By introducing a new scheme, entitled Copyright Shield, the company will pay all bills relating to GPT copyright matters.
There’s a catch, however, because Copyright Shield only applies to customers using commonly available products, which could leave many regular consumers in the dark.
Using ChatGPT will not cost you a legal battle
In a announcementthe company stated: βOpenAI is committed to protecting our customers with copyright safeguards built into our systems.β
OpenAI added: βwe will now intervene and defend our customers and pay any costs incurred if you face legal claims of copyright infringement.β
Copyright Shield only protects users who use generally available OpenAI products, including ChatGPT Enterprise and the developer platform.
The news comes after months of pressure: Microsoft announced earlier in September that it would protect its own customers from legal battles by footing the bill, two months before OpenAI’s move.
Copyright in the world of generative AI has become an increasingly important topic as models like the company’s latest GPT-4 use publicly available information for training purposes.
This means that AI-generated comments can sometimes contain content that belongs to someone else.
Copyright protection is even more important in the case of OpenAI, which announced at the same event that it is making its sources much more up to date. The GPT-4 Turbo model now has knowledge of real-world events until April 2023.
It’s worth noting that GPT-4 turbo is in preview, at least for a few more weeks, so Copyright Shield won’t actually intervene in the event of an infringement allegation.
Clearly, protection from copyright lawsuits for products still in development would be a foolish move by OpenAI, but the offer for widely available products shows a clear commitment to responsible AI, just days after a summit organized by Britain representatives from different countries were present. and enterprises discuss the future of AI.