OpenAI and Microsoft Are Being Sued in California: Here's Why

This Twitter thread is by Carissa Véliz @CarissaVeliz (source: 07-01-2023). Véliz is an Associate Professor at the University of Oxford.

OpenAI and Microsoft are being sued in California for $3 billion over alleged #privacy violations. Here's a short thread on why this lawsuit is important and worth following 🧵👇#AIEthics

First, OpenAI and Microsoft are currently spearheading #GenerativeAI, with Microsoft being one of the largest big #tech companies. The implications of the suit will affect Generative AI more widely. 2/

Second, $3 billion is a very decent amount of money. In most of the fines and lawsuits we've seen in the past few years, the stakes are a fraction of that. 3/

Third, and in my view, more importantly: it shows that privacy concerns are universal. When Italy first banned #ChatGPT on account of #privacy concerns, some critics thought Europe was isolated in these concerns. 4/

So, what are the privacy concerns? That OpenAI has scraped off data from the internet, including personal data, without paying for it or asking for people's consent. In short, they've stolen that data, according to the lawsuit. 5/

Personal data stolen includes names, contact details, email addresses, payment information, social media posts, chat log data, usage data, analytics, and cookies... 6/

"Defendants have been unjustly enriched by their theft of personal information as its billion-dollar AI business, including #ChatGPT and beyond, was built on harvesting and monetizing Internet users’ personal data," the lawsuit states. 7/

What would happen if the plaintiffs win? They would need to be compensated. OpenAI would need to disclose what data they are using (easier said than done, as it doesn't seem like they have a record of the data they've scraped off the internet)... 8/

And OpenAI would need to give people a chance to opt out of data collection, at a minimum. But we are also seeing cases in which companies are asked to delete the algorithms that were trained with data that was collected unlawfully...9/

Here's why this all matters. First, because privacy matters. For more on that, check out my book, Privacy Is Power. But there's more... 10/

https://carissaveliz.com/books

This lawsuit matters because, up until now, the attitude of tech companies has been to do what they want, and then expect the world (including the law) to adapt to them. This is a challenge to that pattern. It suggests it's #tech that should adapt to society (and law). 11/

But isn't this kind of challenge going to stifle progress? No. Technical innovation that leads to the erosion of rights and democracy is not progress. And #AI can be designed differently; not worse; just in accordance with rights and in support of liberal democracies. 12/

To read more about the lawsuit: 13/13.

The lead image for this article was generated by HackerNoon's AI Image Generator via the prompt “Robot testifying in court.”