Media Companies File Lawsuit Against Toronto AI Firm Cohere Over Copyright Infringement

Tara Deschamps, The Canadian Press

TORONTO — A coalition of prominent U.S. media companies, along with the owner of the Toronto Star, has initiated a lawsuit against the artificial intelligence firm Cohere, claiming copyright infringement. The complaint was filed in a New York court on Thursday.

The publishers involved in the lawsuit include notable names such as Condé Nast, McClatchy, Forbes Media, and Guardian News. They allege that the Toronto-based company, Cohere, has unlawfully scraped copies of their articles from the internet without proper authorization or compensation.

According to the complaint, Cohere allegedly used this content to train large language models that power its AI services, which the publishers argue “mimics, undercuts, and competes” with their own offerings. In their legal filing, they emphasized that many publishers have begun licensing their articles to AI companies, highlighting that ethical AI deployment is a value among publishers.

However, they accuse Cohere of misappropriating their creative efforts and investments solely for its profit gain.

The lawsuit includes detailed accusations, spreading over hundreds of pages, detailing instances where Cohere purportedly repurposed media content. It mentions occurrences where the company’s AI produced misleading or false information, which was attributed to publishers’ names.

“Not satisfied with simply taking our works, Cohere goes so far as to fabricate false articles and present them as ours, misleading the public and harming our brands,” read the complaint.

The media companies are requesting a court injunction to prevent Cohere from using their copyrighted content for training or fine-tuning its AI models, along with claims for damages of up to $150,000 for each article that has allegedly been infringed upon.

A representative from Cohere, Josh Gartner, expressed confidence that the court would rule in their favor, stating that the company has taken steps to avoid intellectual property infringement. He indicated that the company would have preferred to address the media companies' concerns directly, rather than learning of them through a lawsuit.

Gartner expressed his belief that the lawsuit is misguided and frivolous, anticipating a resolution in Cohere’s favor.

This legal battle places Cohere in a challenging position, as it is regarded as one of Canada's promising AI firms. The company focuses on providing AI solutions for businesses, helping them harness powerful applications through the use of large language models.

Established in 2019 by Aidan Gomez, a former Google Brain researcher, and tech expert Ivan Zhang, Cohere has attracted significant investment from high-profile backers in the AI space, including Nvidia and others.

Paul Deegan, president of News Media Canada, called on Cohere’s investors to scrutinize the management in light of these allegations. This situation reflects a broader challenge faced by AI developers in the industry.

This lawsuit is reminiscent of other recent copyright issues involving AI developers, including OpenAI, which was sued in November for similar allegations. The coalition behind that lawsuit includes Canadian entities like The Canadian Press, Torstar, and others.

The increasing scrutiny comes at a time when the media landscape is experiencing financial hardships, with reduced advertising budgets and a decline in subscriptions alongside the rise of social media.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published on February 13, 2025.

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Torstar Corp. and a related company of the Globe and Mail hold investments in The Canadian Press.

lawsuit, AI, copyright, media, technology