Merriam-Webster and Encyclopedia Britannica have sued OpenAI for copyright infringement, alleging AI training on 100,000 articles without permission.
Matilda
The Dictionary Sues OpenAI
Merriam-Webster and Britannica Just Declared War on OpenAI — And the Stakes Could Reshape the Entire AI Industry Encyclopedia Britannica and its subsidiary Merriam-Webster have filed a landmark lawsuit against OpenAI, accusing the artificial intelligence company of massive copyright infringement. The publishers allege that nearly 100,000 of their copyrighted online articles were scraped and used without permission to train OpenAI's large language models. This legal battle could become one of the most consequential copyright cases in the history of artificial intelligence. The Core Accusation: 100,000 Articles Stolen Without Permission
At the heart of the lawsuit is a straightforward but explosive claim. Britannica and Merriam-Webster say OpenAI used their vast library of proprietary content — articles carefully researched, written, and maintained over decades — as raw material to build its AI systems. No license was purchased. No permission was sought. No compensation was offered. Th…
