OpenAI Mocked for Issuing Infringement Claim Over Its Logo While Scraping the Entire Web to Train AI Models

Maggie Harrison Dupré
·2 min read

IP Man

As 404 Media reports, ChatGPT creator OpenAI is getting absolutely roasted for allegedly hitting moderators of the r/ChatGPT subreddit with an infringement claim over their use of OpenAI's logo.

Per 404, r/ChatGPT mods first took to the subreddit yesterday to share a screenshot of a message they'd received from Reddit leadership explaining that the company had "received a copyright complaint from openai.com alleging unauthorized use of their copyrighted logos in r/ChatGPT." This, the message added, might "lead to user confusion," and provided the moderators until May 16 to remove the logo. (The mods posted the screenshot with zero context, just a "thumbs up" emoji, the connotation of which may or may not be little passive-aggressive.)

But if this request is real — neither OpenAI nor Reddit reportedly responded to 404's requests for comment — a side-eyed response does feel warranted.

As 404 notes, a company's logo technically falls under trademark law, which is different than copyright. But the alleged request still feels deeply ironic considering that OpenAI itself is currently embroiled in multiple copyright infringement lawsuits due to scraping the entire web and using that data — which includes copyrighted material — to train its AI models.

What's that they say about tasting your own medicine?

Change of Heart

This irony wasn't lost on the subreddit's users, who flocked to deride OpenAI's seeming hypocrisy.

"It does not seem wise for OpenAI to start enforcing copyright claims," said one Redditor.

"Absolutely get fucked," another netizen colorfully chimed in.

Another user offered a to-the-point: "Shat GPT."

But it seems that OpenAI quickly got the hint: last night, r/ChatGPT's moderators declared victory, announcing in an update that OpenAI had agreed to let them use the logo on the condition that the mods update the page's disclaimers.

Still, members of the subreddit don't appear to have forgiven OpenAI just yet. After all, the company's AI products have been caught churning out entire chunks of copyrighted content, and a recent New York Times report — the NYT being one of groups suing OpenAI over copyright infringement — revealed the extent of OpenAI's ethically murky data-scraping practices. All to say, picking a battle like this, especially as litigation mounts, is a terrible look.

"It was genuinely one of the dumbest hills to stand on as a company that constantly uses data to train AND be used and displayed by its product," wrote one user wrote in response to OpenAI's apparent change of heart.

"If anyone were to attack and win a copyright case against OpenAI the entire thing crumbles," added another. "For them to do that is like walking on hot coals but then sitting down and pouring them on your face."

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