STARK RAVING MAD

George R.R. Martin Sues OpenAI for Copyright Infringement

The Game of Thrones novelist joins dozens of other authors in the lawsuit.

Winter is coming for OpenAI. Game of Thrones author George R.R. Martin is one of several dozen writers joining a lawsuit against the startup, claiming that OpenAI’s chatbot ChatGPT was trained illegally using their copyrighted works. Martin joins the likes of David Baldacci, Jodi Picoult, George Saunders, and other novelists in the writers’ advocacy group the Author’s Guild in alleging copyright infringement against the company. “Without Plaintiffs’ and the proposed class’ copyrighted works, Defendants would have a vastly different commercial product,” Rachel Geman, a lawyer representing the Author’s Guild, wrote in a statement. “Defendants’ decision to copy authors’ works, done without offering any choices or providing any compensation, threatens the role and livelihood of writers as a whole.” This complaint is just the latest in a series of ongoing copyright infringement lawsuits leveled against OpenAI—a company that will soon learn that when you play the game of thrones, you win or die.