Extract from Herbert Roitblat’s article “Lawsuit seeks halt to OpenAI artificial intelligence”
A California law firm has recently filed a class action complaint against OpenAi and Microsoft (and 20 unnamed co-conspirators) over their use of Large Language Models. The lawyers allege that OpenAI and Microsoft are guilty of 15 crimes, and they must be stopped from employing their AI models until some specific remedies are obtained. This complaint is long on inuendo and speculation and short on facts.
The complaint alleges that the large language models steal content from World Wide Web users, including children, but it also admits that the information is “technically public.” The complaint alleges that the companies are negligent for releasing on an unsuspecting world artificial intelligence that is likely to cause human extinction, models that no one knows how to control or even how they work. The complaint alleges that the models are capable of defamation because they produce false negative information. More generally, the models are a threat to privacy. The complaint also alleges that the model contains individual profiles for each person, including data collected surreptitiously from tracking the individuals.
Among the remedies for their complaints, the plaintiffs seek:
- A temporary freeze on commercial access to and commercial development of the Products (the large language models)
- Appointment of an independent council to proactively approve uses of the system
- Accountability protocols to ensure that the models follow a “code of human-like ethical principles and guidelines and respect for human values and rights”
- “Technological safety measures … that will prevent the technology from surpassing human intelligence and harming others”
- “Establishment of a monetary fund … to compensate class members for Defendants’ past and ongoing misconduct”
