Alec Radford, a prominent researcher who played a pivotal role in developing many of OpenAI’s key AI technologies, has been subpoenaed in a significant copyright case against the AI startup. This was revealed in a court filing submitted on Tuesday to the U.S. District Court in the Northern District of California. According to the filing, Radford was served the subpoena on February 25.
Radford, who departed from OpenAI late last year to focus on independent research, is notably recognized as the lead author of OpenAI’s groundbreaking research paper on generative pre-trained transformers (GPTs). These transformers are the backbone of OpenAI’s most popular products, including the widely used AI-powered chatbot platform, ChatGPT.
Since joining OpenAI in 2016, just a year after the company’s inception, Radford has been instrumental in developing several models within the GPT series. He has also contributed to the creation of other significant technologies, such as the speech recognition model, Whisper, and DALL-E, which is known for its image-generating capabilities. His expertise and innovations have made a lasting impact on the field of artificial intelligence.
The ongoing copyright case, titled “re OpenAI ChatGPT Litigation,” has been initiated by a group of book authors, including notable figures such as Paul Tremblay, Sarah Silverman, and Michael Chabon. These authors allege that OpenAI has infringed upon their copyrights by utilizing their works to train its AI models. The plaintiffs also contend that ChatGPT has improperly quoted their works without proper attribution, raising significant legal questions about the use of copyrighted material in AI training.
While the court dismissed two of the plaintiffs’ claims against OpenAI last year, it has allowed the claim for direct infringement to proceed. OpenAI has consistently maintained that its utilization of copyrighted data for training purposes is protected under the doctrine of fair use.
Alec Radford is not the only high-profile individual involved in this case. The plaintiffs’ legal team is also seeking to compel the depositions of Dario Amodei and Benjamin Mann, both former OpenAI employees who have since founded Anthropic. Amodei and Mann have contested these motions, arguing that they would place an undue burden on them.
This copyright case against OpenAI is a critical development in the ongoing discussion about the ethical and legal implications of using copyrighted material in artificial intelligence training. As the case unfolds, it will likely have significant ramifications for the future of AI technology and copyright law.
