Artificial intelligence in the legal industry has become a battleground, and the recent lawsuit against OpenAI by Canadian news media groups is just the latest battle. The lawsuit alleges that OpenAI scraped vast amounts of copyrighted content to train its AI models without permission or paying for the content.
As an AI entrepreneur, I find the lawsuit filed by Canadian news media giants against OpenAI based on a misunderstanding about artificial intelligence. The claim alleges that OpenAI scraped copyrighted content from media websites to train its models, infringing on intellectual property rights.
This litigation risks stifling the innovation that could propel Canada into leadership in the global AI ecosystem.
How AI works
AI systems like OpenAI rely on publicly available data to learn and improve. This does not equate to stealing content.
Imagine if a human could read millions of books about travelling, and then you asked the human about travelling. They would be experts who could quickly answer your questions and point you in the right direction. What this human wouldn’t do is show you a book someone else wrote and pretend they wrote it themselves.
This is how AI works. The AI “reads” as much as it can, gets really “smart,” and then explains what it knows when you ask it a question. Like a human learns from reading the news, so does an AI.
When an AI can answer questions, it benefits industries from journalism to law. OpenAI’s models do not reproduce articles verbatim; they process vast datasets to identify patterns, enabling insights and efficiency. These capabilities are integral to advancing technology.
These AI companies mostly index the internet with web crawlers, not scraping websites. Scrapping websites is downloading all of their data in one session, which can risk the website’s servers.
Google and Bing search engines use indexing to find new content on the internet. For example, when a media outlet posts an article, it often ends up on Google and Bing within an hour. This is because these search engines constantly send web crawlers all over the internet to find new content.
This is also how AI operates; there is nothing dark or wrong about it.
We want AI companies in Canada
The recent media lawsuit affects more than just OpenAI. It sends a negative message to all AI innovators: Canada may not be the place to build or sell innovative technologies. Already, AI startups are exploring jurisdictions like Ireland, the Bahamas, Dubai, and Switzerland, where laws and courts are more innovation-friendly. If Canada wishes to remain relevant in this sector, it must balance protecting intellectual property and promoting technological progress.
This lawsuit also underscores a broader issue: the need for clear laws on how public data can be used to train AI models. Rather than resorting to lawsuits, media companies should engage with technology companies. Licensing agreements could ensure fair compensation for data use while enabling AI advancements. Journalism has been struggling, and AI companies have been growing fast. It seems like a match made in heaven.
Canada has an opportunity to lead in AI. But leadership requires embracing innovation, not litigating it. Let’s build bridges, not barriers.
AI is projected to contribute trillions to global GDP over the coming decades. Countries that embrace it will see transformative economic growth. Canada risks being left behind, its potential squandered by shortsighted policies and fear-driven litigation.
I’ve been sued, too
Last month, my legal technology company, Caseway, became entangled in a similar lawsuit. CanLII, a non-profit legal information provider, accused us of scraping 3.5 million legal records.
In reality, Caseway trains its artificial intelligence using public court decisions, not CanLII’s enhancements or proprietary metadata. Many of these AI lawsuits are about monopolizing access to publicly available data under the guise of copyright and restrictive terms of use.
When we approached CanLII to collaborate, they said no. We had to develop other expensive web crawling technology that pulls cases directly from the courts, tribunals, and boards. We don’t scrape any websites.
Traditional companies argue that AI companies exploit creators by using their data without compensation. But this narrative oversimplifies the issue. Caseway and other AI firms are not stealing value but creating it.
Canada has a choice to make. Will we embrace AI as the transformative force it is, or will we let fear and litigation stifle innovation? The lawsuits against Caseway and OpenAI message tech companies: you’re not welcome here. If this continues, Canada won’t just lose its AI startups; it will lose the future of job creation.
Alistair Vigier is the CEO of Caseway, a legal technology company that uses AI to make the law easier.
Totally- it’s time for Canada to get serious about AI.