An anti-piracy group representing major Japanese video game developers, including Square Enix, FromSoftware and Bandai Namco, warned: Open AIIt alleges that OpenAI may have committed copyright infringement. This claim is just one of many that have recently hit AI and LLM companies like OpenAI.
OpenAI is responsible for creating AI/LLM services such as ChatGPT and Sora 2 video generator. Recently, criticism and concerns have been raised about the training materials for these services and whether OpenAI has the legal right to use them. Now, some Japanese game developers are taking note that the Sora 2 video generator seems to be producing content similar to theirs.
OpenAI faces copyright infringement charges from Japan
A Japanese anti-piracy organization called the Content Overseas Distribution Association (CODA) has written to OpenAI asking it to stop using its members' content to train AI models. CODA has “confirmed” that “the majority” of the content produced by OpenAI's Sora 2 is very similar to existing Japanese content, and CODA said it considers “copying during the machine learning process” potentially a copyright infringement. CODA represents a number of Japanese media companies, including game developers Square Enix, Bandai Namco, and FromSoftware, and animation companies such as Aniplex and Studio Ghibli. Studio Ghibli has been the subject of a recent AI art trend that re-creates uploaded user images in the Studio Ghibli art style.
CODA pointed out that while OpenAI has an opt-out system, this does not comply with Japanese copyright law. The United States has fair use rules that allow the use of existing content as long as it is used in a transformative way, but Japan does not. Instead, permission must be obtained in advance, but OpenAI does not appear to have sought permission before using copyrighted Japanese works as educational materials. Accordingly, CODA is specifically requesting that content from the groups it represents not be used for machine learning without permission, and is requesting a response from OpenAI regarding copyright infringement related to Sora 2.
Currently, OpenAI has not issued a public response to these claims. The company already has a lot going for it, with the recent launch of the Sora 2 video generator and major deals with companies like Amazon. But it also faced a lot of backlash, with publications like The New York Times, Writers' Group, and George R.R. Martin suing or threatening to sue over similar claims. On the other hand, some game developers have already chosen to use AI in game development, such as EA.
Source: Coda
