‘Game of Thrones’ Author George R.R. Martin’s OpenAI Lawsuit Takes a Step Forward

Score one for human beings in the ongoing battle between authors and generative AI models.

A federal judge recently used Game of Thrones as an example while allowing class-action lawsuits against OpenAI to move ahead. According to Business Insider, a court ruling on Monday by U.S. District Judge Sidney Stein pointed to ChatGPT-generated text for an installment in A Song of Ice and Fire as grounds for violating George R.R. Martin’s copyright over his book series.

“A reasonable jury could find that the allegedly infringing outputs are substantially similar to plaintiffs’ works,” the Manhattan federal court ruling explained, as shared by the publication.

Along with Martin, other notable authors, including Michael Chabon, Ta-Nehisi Coates, Jia Tolentino, and Sarah Silverman, are part of cases against OpenAI and Microsoft asserting that their copyrights are being violated by allowing their works to be utilized without permission to train the large language models—not to mention allowing AI to create content that could be passed off as authors’ legally protected works.

As part of the lawsuit, a ChatGPT prompt created by Martin’s lawyers resulted in the AI’s offer to craft “an alternative sequel to A Clash of Kings [called] A Dance with Shadows,” tweaking Martin’s title, A Storm of Swords. As Business Insider notes, the chatbot went on to suggest plots revolving around “the discovery of a novel kind of ‘ancient dragon-related magic’ and new claims to the Iron Throne from ‘a distant relative of the Targaryens’ named Lady Elara, as well as ‘a rogue sect of Children of the Forest.’”

The results were reminiscent enough of Martin’s work to allow the suits to move forward on copyright infringement grounds, though whether or not Microsoft and OpenAI are protected by “fair use” is still to be decided.

Sure, AI can write faster than Martin but it is not Martin and will never replace Martin. We’d rather wait a few (more) years for his next book, thank you very much.

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