The Indian Express, the Hindustan Times and the digital news divisions of Indian billionaires Gautam Adani and Mukesh Ambani have filed a lawsuit against OpenAI for its unauthorised use of copyrighted content, according to court documents.
TakeAway Points:
- Digital news units of Indian billionaires Gautam Adani and Mukesh Ambani, and other outlets like the Indian Express and the Hindustan Times, have mounted a legal challenge against OpenAI’s improper use of copyright content.
- Texas Instruments’ shares fall 4% after the Q1 profit forecast comes in below estimates.
Copyright battle
The media outlets, including Adani’s NDTV and Ambani’s Network18, have told a New Delhi court they want to join an ongoing lawsuit against the ChatGPT creator, as they are worried their news websites are being scraped to store and reproduce their work for users of the powerful AI tool.
Reuters is the first to report the case filing by the digital news publishers, which escalates an ongoing legal battle against ChatGPT in India. In the most high-profile battle, local news agency ANI was first to file a lawsuit against OpenAI last year. Global and Indian book publishers have also now joined in.
The 135-page case filing in the New Delhi court, which is not public but was reviewed by Reuters, argues OpenAI’s conduct constitutes “a clear and present danger to the valuable copyrights” of Digital News Publishers Association (DNPA) members and other outlets.
It refers to OpenAI’s “wilful scraping … and adaptation of content.”.
Courts across the world are hearing claims by authors, news outlets and musicians who accuse technology firms of using their copyright work to train AI services and who are seeking to have content used to train the chatbot deleted.
The filing was made by the Indian Express, Hindustan Times, Adani’s NDTV and the DNPA, which represents roughly 20 companies, including Mukesh Ambani Network18 and players like Dainik Bhaskar. Many of these outlets have a flourishing newspaper and television news business too.
The Times of India is not taking part in the legal challenge despite being a member of the DNPA.
OpenAI did not respond to a request for comment on the new allegations. It has repeatedly denied such allegations, saying its AI systems make fair use of publicly available data.
Texas Instruments gives its Q1 profit forecast
Texas Instruments forecast first-quarter profit below analysts’ estimates on Thursday as the analogue chipmaker grapples with an inventory buildup in its key automotive and industrial markets.
Shares of the over 90-year-old company fell about 4% in extended trading after TI also forecast first-quarter revenue largely in line with estimates, disappointing investors waiting for a rebound in the analog chip market.
The automotive market has struggled to clear existing chip inventory in the face of tepid end-market demand, hurting orders for TI’s chips amid a prolonged analog slump stemming from stock-piling during the pandemic. This is mirrored in the industrial market, which utilizes chips for tasks such as automating factories.
“A real recovery in analog market growth is still not happening,” said Stifel analyst Tore Svanberg.
Fourth-quarter revenue from the industrial and automotive markets was down by single-digit percentage points sequentially.
The China automotive market, which has been a bright spot for TI, could not buoy the company past a wider weakness. The market in “China did grow, but not enough to offset the declines in Europe, the U.S. and Japan,” CEO Haviv Ilan said in a post-earnings call.
While revenue in the analog segment grew 2% in the fourth quarter, ending eight consecutive quarters of declines, the industrial and automotive markets — which make up a majority of revenue — have still not “seen the bottom,” Ilan said.
Additionally, TI hasn’t been notified about any investigations by China’s commerce ministry into the company, CEO Ilan said in response to an analyst’s questions about Beijing launching an investigation into U.S. government subsidies to its semiconductor sector over alleged harm caused to Chinese mature node chipmakers.
Profit impacted by elevated inventory
The company forecast earnings in the range of 94 cents to $1.16 per share for the first quarter, compared to analysts’ average estimate of $1.17 per share, according to data compiled by LSEG.
Elevated inventory levels across these markets drove TI to reduce factory loadings — the quantity of products being manufactured — spreading fixed costs out over lesser output.
The high inventory levels will “lead to factory underutilisation and will lead to some near-term gross margin impact,” said Summit Insights analyst Kinngai Chan.
Inventory at the end of the fourth quarter was $4.5 billion, up $231 million from the previous quarter.
The company reported revenue of $4.01 billion for the fourth quarter, beating estimates of $3.88 billion.
