Authors Nicholas A. Basbanes and Nicholas Ngagoyeanes (professionally known as Nicholas Gage) filed a class-action lawsuit against Microsoft and OpenAI for alleged copyright infringement related to the use of their written works in training AI models such as ChatGPT.

The two allege that Microsoft and OpenAI used their copyrighted works without permission or compensation to train AI models, including ChatGPT. The lawsuit also claims that OpenAI has admitted to using e-book datasets like Books2, which likely come from pirated online repositories such as Library Genesis.

The plaintiffs argue that this unauthorised use threatens the livelihood of writers and the future of creative endeavours, and is part of a broader trend of legal actions against AI companies by authors and publishers, including similar suits filed by other prominent writers like John Grisham and George R.R. Martin.

The lawsuit seeks to represent a class of potentially tens of thousands of authors or copyright owners in the United States who may have been affected by these practices.

AI companies have generally defended their practices by citing the "fair use" doctrine in copyright law, though this remains highly contentious.