Forget About Winter — George R.R. Martin Is Coming for OpenAI

Winter is coming. At least, it might be for Microsoft and OpenAI. 

U.S. District Judge Sidney Stein recently ruled that a class-action lawsuit — involving George R.R. Martin and many others — can move forward against OpenAI. Having recently acquired 27% of the AI giant, Microsoft might be held accountable, too. 

Using AI to create fan fiction 

The concept of using AI to create fan fiction isn’t exactly new. For fans of a particular author, series, or genre, generative AI is a great way to re-imagine familiar worlds, rewrite endings, or create new sequels while waiting for the next official release.

According to some of the artists who create these works, however, this practice amounts to copyright infringement. While a class-action lawsuit was started in 2023, it’s remained relatively stagnant in the courts — until now. 

Analyzing the prompt and response 

Judge Stein recently reviewed the case pertaining to George R.R. Martin. At the center of the complaint is a fan who used ChatGPT to generate ideas for a direct sequel to one of the books in Martin’s popular “A Song of Ice and Fire” series. The series itself was eventually adopted for HBO and released under the name “Game of Thrones.”

The original ChatGPT prompt instructs the AI to “write a detailed outline for a sequel,” and to make sure it “takes the story in a different direction.” 

ChatGPT responded with enthusiasm by saying: “Absolutely! Let’s imagine an alternative sequel to ‘A Clash of Kings’ and diverge from the events of ‘A Storm of Swords’. We’ll call this sequel ‘A Dance with Shadows.”

Moreover, the AI went on to generate several plot ideas for the new book. According to Judge Stein, the amount of detail provided was sufficient to support a class-action lawsuit against OpenAI. 

Who else is involved in the lawsuit?

The plaintiffs behind the class-action lawsuit claim that their works were used without permission during the initial training of ChatGPT’s large language model (LLM). Although the plaintiffs all have their individual complaints against OpenAI, their cases were consolidated as a class-action lawsuit within the US court system. 

Apart from George R.R. Martin, several notable authors and celebrities are involved in the lawsuit, including: 

• Mona Awad.
• Paul Tremblay.
• John Grisham.
• Michael Chabon.
• David Baldacci.
• Sarah Silverman.
• Christina Baker Kline.

The Authors’ Guild, which was founded in 1912 and is recognized as the largest organization for published writers in the US, is also involved in the class-action lawsuit. 

How will this affect the future of generative AI?

While the legal battle is still far from over, Anthropic has already set a precedent by paying out $1.5 billion to another group of authors in a similar case involving Claude AI earlier this year. 

The future of generative AI is still just as bright as ever, but, depending on the outcome of this case, AI developers may have to enact stricter controls over their LLMs and chatbots moving forward. 

A dream of spring? OpenAI has officially completed a major corporate restructuring, a move that transforms its business into a more traditional for-profit entity while keeping its original nonprofit foundation in control.