OpenAI sued by Brazilian journalist over copyright infringement

Journalist and writer Fernando Morais has filed a lawsuit against OpenAI in São Paulo, Brazil, alleging copyright infringement. The legal action claims that ChatGPT used excerpts from his books without authorization or compensation to train its artificial intelligence models.

Morais’s legal team argues that the AI uses his protected literary works for “parasitic training,” which allows the platform to reproduce detailed summaries of his books, such as his biography of Assis Chateaubriand and the work “Corações Sujos.” They contend this practice undermines the publishing market and the intellectual rights that support authors' livelihoods.

The lawsuit seeks an injunction to suspend the use of his content by the platform, a daily fine for non-compliance, and compensation for damages. This case adds to a growing global debate regarding the boundaries of “fair use” and whether tech companies can legally use internet-available content to train generative AI systems, following similar legal challenges from publishers and media outlets in the United States.