Nvidia Faces Lawsuit from Three Authors for Using Copyrighted Books in AI Training Without Permission

In a recent development, Nvidia, a company known for its AI-chip technology, is being sued by three authors who claim their copyrighted books were used without permission to train Nvidia’s NeMo AI platform.

The authors, Abdi Nazemian, Stewart O’Nan, and Brian Keene claim that Nvidia unlawfully used their copyrighted books to train its NeMo AI platform without obtaining proper permission.

In a class action lawsuit filed in federal court in San Francisco, alleges that Nvidia used the authors’ works in approximately 196,640 books for training its AI platform NeMo.

This dataset was taken down in October following complaints of copyright infringement. O’Nan’s 2007 novella “Last Night at the Lobster,” Nazemian’s 2019 novel “Like a Love Story,” and Keene’s 2008 novel “Ghost Walk,” are among the works cited in the lawsuit.

According to the authors, Nvidia’s admission of using the dataset in training NeMo serves as evidence of copyright infringement. They are seeking unspecified damages on behalf of people in the U.S. whose copyrighted materials aided in the training of NeMo’s extensive language models within the last three years.

Nvidia has refrained from commenting on the matter, while legal representatives for the authors have declined to respond in this matter.

This legal case puts Nvidia on the list of companies facing legal challenges related to generative AI technology. Generative AI has been the subject of controversy as it produces fresh content based on various inputs, including sounds, images, and text.

Nvidia’s NeMo platform has been promoted as a cost-effective solution for implementing generative AI. However, this legal action underscores the legal implications and complexities associated with the use of copyrighted materials in AI training.

Investors have closely watched Nvidia’s performance, with the company’s stock value experiencing a significant surge of nearly 600% since 2022. This surge has propelled Nvidia to a market value of almost $2.2 trillion.

The case, officially known as Nazemian et al v Nvidia Corp, is currently being heard in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California under case number 24-01454.

The outcome of this legal battle could have significant implications for the future development and deployment of generative AI technologies. As such, stakeholders across various sectors will be closely monitoring the proceedings and subsequent rulings to measure their impact on the broader landscape of AI innovation and intellectual property rights.

Other tech giants involved in similar lawsuits include OpenAI, the company behind the creation of the popular AI platform ChatGPT, and its collaborator Microsoft.