Nvidia Faces Lawsuit Over AI Training With Copyrighted Books

Three authors have initiated a legal battle against the technology giant Nvidia, asserting that the company has used their copyrighted works without consent to train its artificial intelligence platform, NeMo. The authors claim their literary pieces were part of a substantial collection of approximately 196,640 books utilized in developing NeMo's ability to replicate conventional written discourse. The dataset, however, was removed in October following copyright infringement allegations.

Legal Actions and Claims

Brian Keene, Abdi Nazemian, and Stewart O'Nan, the plaintiffs in this case, argue that Nvidia's removal of the dataset is an implicit admission of using their copyrighted materials for AI training, thereby violating their rights. They are pursuing unspecified compensation for all U.S. individuals whose copyrighted works may have been exploited by Nvidia in the past three years for training NeMo's advanced language models. Some of the prominent works mentioned in the legal action include Keene's 'Ghost Walk', Nazemian's 'Like a Love Story', and O'Nan's 'Last Night at the Lobster'.

The Contentious Rise of Generative AI

This lawsuit entangles Nvidia in the increasing controversies surrounding generative AI, which is redefining content creation across various media by learning from large volumes of input data. Nvidia's AI platform NeMo is promoted as an efficient solution to harness generative AI technologies. However, this is not an isolated case as other entities such as OpenAI, the minds behind the AI ChatGPT, and Microsoft, have been engulfed in similar legal disputes.

The debate over AI and copyright infringement highlights the delicate balance between technological advancement and the protection of intellectual property. As AI capabilities grow, companies like Nvidia enjoy heightened interest from investors, with Nvidia's share value skyrocketing by almost 600% since late 2022, catapulting its market worth to almost $2.2 trillion.

While Nvidia has refrained from commenting on the lawsuit, and the authors' lawyers have yet to provide additional details, the implications of the case could have far-reaching consequences for copyright law and AI development. The case, referenced as Nazemian et al v Nvidia Corp, is being considered in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.

lawsuit, copyright, AI