OpenAI is arguing in an Ontario court that a copyright lawsuit filed by Canadian news publishers should be heard in the United States. The lawsuit involves OpenAI's ChatGPT generative AI system and is the first of its kind in Canada. A coalition of Canadian news outlets, including major players like Torstar, The Globe and Mail, and CBC/Radio-Canada, claims OpenAI used their news content to train ChatGPT without permission or compensation.

The news publishers allege that OpenAI is violating copyright laws by scraping large amounts of content from Canadian media. In response, OpenAI is challenging the jurisdiction of the Ontario Superior Court, asserting that it is not based in Ontario and does not conduct business there. The company is headquartered in San Francisco, and its subsidiaries are incorporated under Delaware law.

In court filings, OpenAI stated that the activities in question, such as training AI models and crawling web content, occurred entirely outside of Ontario. The company argues that the Canadian Copyright Act does not apply to actions taken outside of Canada. "Canadian copyright law does not apply to extraterritorial conduct," OpenAI stated in its submission. They further emphasized that the location of the plaintiffs or their websites does not affect the jurisdictional issues at hand.

Conversely, the news publishers contend that the case should remain in Ontario. They argue there is a significant connection to the province, as they provide the majority of journalistic content in Canada. Their court document asserts that the news content in question was largely created and owned by companies based in Ontario. They also claim that much of OpenAI's content scraping occurred within the province.

The legal arguments in this case are complex, focusing on technical aspects such as server locations and whether certain protocols qualify as technological protection measures under the Copyright Act. However, the publishers also highlight broader implications. They warn that accepting OpenAI's arguments could lead to Canada relinquishing jurisdiction over a significant portion of its digital economy, which they view as a serious concern for Canadian sovereignty.

OpenAI has accused the news publishers of politicizing the case, claiming their arguments invoke national sovereignty and the importance of journalism inappropriately. The company argues that these points are irrelevant to the jurisdictional issues and that copyright law's territorial nature does not raise sovereignty concerns.

This lawsuit, initiated last year, is part of a larger trend, as multiple lawsuits regarding AI systems and copyright are currently underway in the United States. While AI companies have seen some legal victories, U.S. courts have yet to establish a clear precedent on the broader issues surrounding the use of copyrighted content for training AI models. OpenAI noted that if U.S. courts determine that such use is lawful, it could create complications for the Ontario court's ruling under Canadian law. The news publishers, however, maintain that there is no risk of conflicting decisions between the two countries.