HC experts differ in OpenAI copyright case

At heart of the issue is whether the company's use of ANI data in 'non-expressive' manner falls under fair use in copyright law

- Shruti Kakkar

NEW DELHI: Experts appointed by the Delhi high court in the copyright infringement case between news agency ANI and OpenAI on Friday presented differing views on whether the artificial intelligence company's use of ANI's news content for training its ChatGPT software constituted a violation of copyright law.

Professor Arul George Scaria from the National Law School of India University (NLSIU) argued before a bench of Justice Amit Bansal that OpenAI's act of storing ANI data for training its software did not amount to infringement since OpenAI was using the data in a "non-expressive" manner—extracting facts and underlying information rather than reproducing the content. Thus, this was permissible under copyright law. He added that both temporary and permanent storage of copyrighted material for learning purposes was allowed under existing legal framework. Preventing such use, Scaria said, could hinder the broader goal of copyright law, which is to encourage creation and dissemination of knowledge.