OpenAI, a leading artificial intelligence (AI) company, has temporarily suspended its ‘Browse with Bing’ feature in its chatbot, ChatGPT, due to ongoing content issues. This move precedes a rising tide of legal actions against the company, challenging the boundaries of copyright and privacy laws.
The ‘Browse with Bing’ feature was part of the premium subscription service for ChatGPT Plus, enabling the chatbot to utilize Bing search results to supplement its responses. OpenAI stated in their recent announcement, “The beta version of the ‘ChatGPT Browse with Bing’ feature has sometimes presented content inconsistent with our objectives. There have been instances of inadvertently providing a URL’s full text upon request.”
OpenAI is currently entangled in multiple legal battles. The company has been accused of using copyrighted books as training data for its AI systems without appropriate permissions or compensation in a case known as Tremblay v. OpenAI Inc. The claim suggests that ChatGPT’s ability to summarize these books implies the chatbot absorbed the copyrighted contents.
A separate lawsuit, PM v. OpenAI LP, alleges the AI firm improperly gathered user data from platforms including Snapchat, Spotify, Stripe, Slack, and Microsoft Teams without the necessary consent.
The outcomes of these cases could set significant precedents for the future of AI, possibly leading to increased regulation and impacting innovation in the field.
ChatGPT Plus’s ‘Browse with Bing’ feature has been deactivated as OpenAI takes steps to address these issues, with plans to reintroduce the feature once resolved. OpenAI’s decision reflects its commitment to content owners and users while dealing with these legal challenges.