OpenAI is being sued by some of Canada's largest news organizations for $20,000 per article that they feed to ChatGPT.

The Guardian was the first to report that a number major Canadian media and news companies have joined forces to sue OpenAI for its use of articles from their publications to train large language model.

In a statement regarding the lawsuit, News Media Canada President Paul Deegan argued "these artificial-intelligence companies cannibalize their proprietary content and are freeriding on the shoulders of news publishers who spend real money to hire real journalists who produce stories for real people.

"They are strip mining journalism while substantially, unfairly, and illegally enriching themselves at the expense of publishers."

The lawsuit was filed on Friday and seeks a share of profits OpenAI made by using articles from these companies. It also asks for an injunction to stop OpenAI from using any content from them and damages up to $20,000 for each article that OpenAI uses to train its LLMs. OpenAI may be liable for massive damages if a court rules in favor of the media companies, given the dragnet nature and sheer number of articles that are likely to be in question. The companies behind the suit include:

• The Globe and Mail
• The Canadian Press
• The CBC
• The Toronto Star
• Metroland Media & Postmeda

OpenAI is also currently fending off copyright lawsuits from the New York Times and a class action of authors including George R.R. Martin. OpenAI is also currently fending off lawsuits for copyright from the New York Times, and a group action of authors such as George R.R. Martin, while Elon has also sued OpenAI as part of a palace intrigue involving him and the other co-founders.