3 Count: AI Battles

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1: ‘Impossible’ to Create AI Tools Like ChatGPT Without Copyrighted Material, OpenAI says

First off today, Dan Milmo at The Guardian reports that ChatGPT developer OpenAI has responded to a lawsuit filed against, but not with a pleading, instead in a public blog post.

Last month, the New York Times sued OpenAI and Microsoft, alleging that the companies used New York Times content to train their AI systems without permission. As proof, they showed ChatGPT repeating New York Times articles nearly verbatim after using specific prompts.

In their response, OpeAI said that it would be “impossible” to create tools like ChatGPT without using copyright-protected work. The company said that they “support journalism” but still believe that the New York Times lawsuit without merit and that their training on the content is fair use.

2: Viral Lists Reveal Artists Whose Work May Have Trained an A.I. Art Generator

Next up today, Sarah Kuta at Smithsonian Magazine reports that Midjourney has released a list of some 4,700 artists used to train its image generation AI system.

The list was initially made public as part of a court exhibit in a lawsuit against Midjourney over the use of copyright protected works to train their AI systems. The spreadsheet lists some 4,700 individuals, including many well-known artists, that the system was trained on with the intent of mimicking their style.

This list includes names such as Tim Burton, Walt Disney, Banksy and more. Lesser known artists also have apepared on the list, including a 6-year old named Karen K Ho. In addition to the 4,700 names in the main list, it includes a second list of 16,000 “proposed additions”. It is unclear how many, if any, of those additions were eventually added to the main list.

3: Video Piracy Visits Rose to 141 Billion in 2023, Report Shows

Finally today, Ernesto Van der Sar at Torrentfreak writes that a recent report released by the piracy tracking company MUSO and consulting firm Kearney finds that video piracy site visits increased dramatically in 2023, representing a 12 percent rise since 2019.

The increase is attributed to multiple elements, including a shifting legitimate content landscape that many users find undesireable and the growth of boardband internet access in India, which has resulted in millions of new users. India and the United States tied for first in raw traffc, with both countries representing 11% of pirate site traffic. However, due to its much larger population and continued broadband access growth, India is widely expected to fully overtake the United States soon.

In terms of most pirate site visits per capita, Europe led the way with 34 visits per capita and then North America with 26. From a content perspective, film and TV shows made up 65% of all pirate site visits, with anime representing another 25%. Live sports and live linear broadcasts made up the rest. The study only included direct visits to pirate websites and doesn’t count the use of pirate set top boxed.

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