Encyclopedia Britannica sues OpenAI in US District Court over AI training
Encyclopedia Britannica sues OpenAI in US District Court over AI training
The case is one of many high-stakes lawsuits filed by copyright owners
Printed for 245 years, Encyclopedia Britannica and its subsidiary, Merriam-Webster, have sued OpenAI in the US District Court in Manhattan for the alleged misuse of their reference materials to train its artificial intelligence (AI) models.
The complaint stated that Microsoft-backed OpenAI used its online articles and encyclopedia and dictionary entries to teach its flagship chatbot ChatGPT to respond to human prompts.
Britannica's lawsuit claimed that OpenAI unlawfully copied nearly 100,000 of its articles to train GPT large language models. It added that OpenAI ‘cannibalized’ Britannica's web traffic with AI-generated summaries of its content.
However, the spokesperson for OpenAI said, "Our models empower innovation, and are trained on publicly available data and grounded in fair use.”
Britannica's lawsuit said that ChatGPT produced "near-verbatim" copies of Britannica's encyclopedia entries, dictionary definitions and other content, diverting users who would otherwise visit its websites.
It further accused OpenAI of infringing its trademarks by implying that it had permission to reproduce its material and wrongfully citing Britannica in false AI "hallucinations.
The longest-running English-language encyclopedia has sought unspecified monetary damages and a court order to compel OpenAI to block the alleged violation.
The case is one of many, including authors and news outlets, against tech companies for using their material to train AI systems without permission
In 2025, Britannica filed a related lawsuit against AI startup Perplexity AI, and the matter is ongoing.
Meanwhile, AI companies state that their systems make fair use of copyrighted material by transforming it into fresh content.
