Cohere accused of violating publishers' copyright, trademarks

AI company Cohere used at least 4,000 copyrighted works without permission to train its AI models, according to a lawsuit brought by a consortium of m ajor news publishers . What happened Cohere allegedly reproduced portions or entire copies of articles in response to user queries as part of a " massive, systematic” infringement of copyright. The company also stands accused of "hallucinating" content that wasn’t published by the publishers, and falsely attributing it in their name. The plaintiffs, including Condé Nast, The Atlantic and Forbes, argue Cohere's activities damage their ability to attract web traffic and subscription revenue , and are seeking damages of up to USD 150,000 per infringed work. They also demand a court order forcing Cohere to destroy all copyrighted material in its possession. Why it happened Cohere responded by saying that it "strongly stands by its practices for responsibly training its enterprise AI" and dismissed the lawsuit "misguided and frivolous". The lawsuit is part of a broader trend of legal battles between copyright owners and AI companies over the use of copyrighted material in training large language models. What it means If found guilty, Cohere stands to lose hundreds of millions of dollars. The case could also set a legal precedent, potentially impacting the AI industry and how companies approach the use of copyrighted material for training AI systems. System 🤖 Unknown Developer: Cohere Country: USA Sector: Media/entertainment/sports/arts Purpose: Train AI models Technology: Generativ e AI; Machine learning Issue: Accountability; Copyright; Mis/disinformation; Transparency Legal, regulatory 👩🏼‍⚖️ ADVANCE LOCAL MEDIA LLC, ADVANCE MAGAZINE PUBLISHERS INC. D/B/A CONDE NAST, THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY GROUP LLC, FORBES MEDIA LLC, GUARDIAN NEWS & MEDIA LIMITED, INSIDER, INC., LOS ANGELES TIMES COMMUNICATIONS LLC, THE MCCLATCHY COMPANY, LLC, NEWSDAY, LLC, PLAIN DEALER PUBLISHING CO., POLITICO LLC, THE REPUBLICAN COMPANY, TORONTO STAR NEWSPAPERS LIMITED, and VOX MEDIA, LLC, Plaintiffs, v. COHERE INC.

Date it happened

2025-02-01

This is a record of what was reported, not a finding that anyone broke the law. If it names your organisation and you believe it is wrong, the corrections process is free and open to everyone.