Nvidia Sued Over Copyright Claims for Using Books to Train AI Platform

Nvidia has been sued for copyright infringement, making it the latest AI company to face such allegations.

Reuters reports that three authors filed suit against the chip maker, alleging their works were used to train its NeMo platform, without permission.

‘Ghost Walk’ writer Brian Keene, Abdi Nazemian who penned ‘Like a Love Story’ and Stewart O'Nan of ‘Late Night at the Lobster’ allege that their works were included in the data used to train NeMo, with Nvidia later removing them in October.

Nvidia’s removal of the books from the NeMo data shows Nvidia “admitted” it used them without permission, the lawsuit alleges.

Unlike other copyright lawsuits that focus on individual models, this latest action focuses on the development platform in which users can build out AI models. NeMo, unveiled in September 2022, allows developers to tailor foundation models.

The class-action lawsuit demands damages for U.S. authors whose copyright works were used in the NeMo platform to help train LLMs.

An Nvidia spokesperson told AI Business: “We respect the rights of all content creators and believe we created NeMo in full compliance with copyright law.”

The suit follows other high-profile AI companies facing similar action. OpenAI was hit by a lawsuit from The New York Times, though in counterarguments, OpenAI claims the news outlet “hacked” ChatGPT to compile evidence against it.

Related:Which AI Model Most Infringes on Copyrighted Content?

Book authors and music publishers also are suing other large language developers over copyright violation claims.

Just last week, research from AI startup Patronus found that OpenAI’s GPT-4 reproduced the most copyrighted content.