ANI vs OpenAI: Delhi HC denies interim relief against ChatGPT

The Delhi High Court refused to restrain ChatGPT from using ANI's copyrighted content for AI training, holding that such use is prima facie protected as fair dealing under copyright law. The court said restricting AI development would adversely affect innovation and public interest

New Delhi: The Delhi High Court on Friday said artificial intelligence (AI) has revolutionised how public seeks information and restraining ChatGPT from using copyrighted work would be detrimental to the growth of AI and LLMs being developed in the country.

Justice Amit Bansal said India is considered a forerunner in the field of AI and “data is the oil for ‘large language models’ (LLMs) to work efficiently”. LLM refers to a language-focused AI model which can read, understand and generate text.

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Justice Bansal made the observations in an interim order passed on a lawsuit by news agency ANI against OpenAI, which runs the platform ChatGPT.

Holding that the use of ANI’s copyrighted literary work by ChatGPT amounted to fair dealing under the Copyrights Act, and did not amount to an infringement of its intellectual property right, the court dismissed an application by the news agency seeking an interim injunction against ChatGPT.

The court further said that any injunction at this stage would adversely impact public interest and millions of users of ChatGPT in India.

“AI, including generative AI, has brought about a transformational change in the lives of the people all over the world, including India. It has completely revolutionised the manner in which people seek and obtain information… Any interim injunction granted at this stage would, in my opinion, be detrimental to the growth of AI and more particularly, to the LLMs being developed in India,” the court said in the order.

“I am of the prima facie view that OpenAI’s act of storing ANI’s original literary works for training LLMs underlying ChatGPT falls under Section 52(1)(a) of the Copyright Act and therefore, does not amount to infringement under Section 51 of the Copyright Act,” the court held.

In the 135-page order, the court explained that training LLMs underlying ChatGPT advanced scientific knowledge, developed innovative computational tools, disseminated information, promoted education, etc., and while the rights of copyright owners were important, the societal benefits arising from such scientific and technological research was a relevant factor.

“Therefore, on a prima facie view, from the above analysis, this court is of the view that the process of training LLMs underlying ChatGPT undertaken by Open AI using stored literary work of ANI falls under ‘private or personal use, including research’ as provided in Section 52(1)(a) of the Copyright Act and fulfils the ‘purpose’ test,” it stated.