OpenAI, the developers of artificial intelligence (AI) chatbox ChatGPT, have been hit with a lawsuit which claims the platform stole an ‘unprecedented’ amount of data and information.
Law firm Clarkson filed the class-action lawsuit against OpenAI with over 10 plaintiffs and 157 complaints of allegations stemming from the theft of unregistered scrapping of internet data.
The lawsuit also alleges that OpenAI is “intentionally luring thousands if not millions of children” to its platforms such as ChatGPT.
Clarkson’s complaints focus on the accusation of stolen private information used for the development of its platforms, such as personally identifiable information of a wide range of ages without their consent or knowledge.
Lead Attorney behind the lawsuit, Ryan J. Clarkson, stated that “essentially, every piece of data exchanged on the internet it could take – without notice to the owners or users of such data – much less with anyone’s permission”.
He continued: “Defendants deceptively operated the free ChatGPT Platform as if it were only used by adults while intentionally luring thousands if not millions of children to the platform.”
The suit is also seeking compensation for unspecified damages and the freezing of ChatGPT until conditions are met.
ChatGPT has become one of, if not, the fastest-growing applications ever with over 1 million users in five days last November, as OpenAI also has an average of 1 billion monthly visitors.
Releasing a statement on the lawsuit, ChatGPT said: “OpenAI, a global leader in artificial intelligence research and development, categorically denies the recent allegations that it engaged in the unlawful scraping of private and copyrighted information from the internet to train its ChatGPT language model.
“OpenAI firmly believes in maintaining the highest standards of ethical conduct, respecting privacy rights, and upholding intellectual property laws.”
