SAN FRANCISCO (Legal Newsline) — Microsoft and others are facing a class action from ChatGPT users alleging illegal use of private information for their AI technology.
P.M., K.S., and others filed a complaint June 28 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California against OpenAI LP., OpenAI Startup fund, Microsoft and others alleging violation of the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, negligence and other claims.
The plaintiffs allege in their complaint that the defendants use "scraping of internet data" and theft of personal data from millions of Americans for their AI tools. They claim that the defendants use private information, conversations, medical data, information about children and other information from the internet without notice to owners or users and without their permission.
Specifically, the plaintiffs allege that the defendants use the stolen data for "large language models" and "deep language algorithms to generate human-like language." They claim the language is then used for applications such as chatbots, translation and text generation to allow "human-like conversations" that answer questions, give information and generate text and art on demand, as well as "connect emotionally with people."
The plaintiffs allege the defendants have recklessly released the AI technology without regard to the "catastrophic risk to humanity" and that without legal intervention, it will lead to AI acting against human interest and values.
The plaintiffs and the class seek monetary relief, interest, trial by jury and all other just relief. They are represented by Ryan Clarkson, Yana Hart, Tiara Avaness and Valter Malkhasyan of The Clarkson Law Firm PC in Malibu, California, Tracey Cowan of The Clarkson Law Firm PC in San Francisco and Timothy Giordano of The Clarkson Law Firm PC in New York City.
U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California case number 3:23-CV-03`99-JCS