• Britannica sues ChatGPT for allegedly using its materials without permission

Encyclopedia Britannica and its subsidiary, Merriam-Webster, have filed a lawsuit in Manhattan federal court against OpenAI, accusing the company of using their educational content and dictionary entries to train its artificial intelligence models, including the ChatGPT chatbot.

According to the complaint, Microsoft-backed OpenAI used Britannica’s online articles, encyclopedia entries, and dictionary content to teach its AI how to respond to user prompts. The lawsuit also claims that OpenAI “cannibalized” Britannica’s web traffic by generating AI summaries of its content.

OpenAI responded, stating, “Our models drive innovation, are trained on publicly available data, and operate under fair use principles.”

This case is part of a series of lawsuits brought by copyright holders—including authors and media outlets—against tech companies accused of using their materials to train AI systems without permission. Britannica previously filed a similar lawsuit against AI startup Perplexity AI, which is still ongoing.

Supporters of AI companies argue that their systems make fair use of copyrighted content by transforming it into new material.

Britannica’s lawsuit alleges that OpenAI unlawfully copied nearly 100,000 articles from the encyclopedia to train its large language models. It further claims that ChatGPT produces “near-verbatim” versions of Britannica articles, dictionary definitions, and other content, diverting users from Britannica’s official sites.

The lawsuit also accuses OpenAI of infringing trademarks by implying it had authorization to republish the content and improperly citing Britannica in AI “hallucinations.”

Britannica is seeking unspecified financial damages and a court order to prevent further alleged infringements.