Full Summary
This Sunday morning, news organizations Newsday and The Seattle Times have filed a joint lawsuit against OpenAI and Microsoft, alleging copyright infringement. Both Whalesbook and Newsday report the suit claims the tech giants used their journalism without permission to train AI models like ChatGPT and Copilot, often scraping paywalled content and reproducing it verbatim. The publishers are seeking monetary damages and the destruction of AI training datasets built with their content. Microsoft has expressed surprise but is open to solutions, while OpenAI cites "fair use" for its training on publicly available data. Meanwhile, Sam Altman, OpenAI's CEO, is making headlines with bold visions for the future of AI. Cryptobriefing.com reveals Altman wants OpenAI to build the computer that comes after the smartphone, envisioning proactive AI devices that anticipate user needs. This includes a portable, battery-powered smart speaker, launching in 2027, from OpenAI's collaboration with Jony Ive's startup. The Rundown AI adds that Altman confirms OpenAI will "definitely" build humanoid robots, believing everyone should eventually have a personal robot. In the realm of legal battles, Sony Music and Warner Chappell, along with 33 other music publishers, are suing Anthropic, its CEO Dario Amodei, and co-founder Benjamin Mann for copyright infringement, as reported by 36Kr. They allege Anthropic's Claude AI model was trained using pirated music lyrics and scores, seeking potentially billions in damages. This follows a previous $1.5 billion settlement by Anthropic in a book copyright case. TechCrunch further reports that authors expecting payments from that $1.5 billion settlement are finding publishers and literary agencies claiming shares of their money, sometimes for books where rights have reverted to the author. Finally, Anthropic is also making waves on the financial front. The International Business Times notes that Anthropic is moving forward with its IPO filing, with The Next Web projecting a potential $2 trillion valuation and an IPO debut shortly before the US midterms in November. This comes as Anthropic's quarterly revenue passed $11.5 billion in August, a fourteen-fold increase year-on-year. These legal battles and technological ambitions mean that the content you consume, from news articles to music, could become significantly more expensive for AI companies to access, potentially impacting the features and costs of future AI tools.