By now, you may already been using ChatGPT on a regular basis, just like so many other people are doing all over the world every day for writing tasks like web scraping, constructing business reports and emails, or even for things like having a conversation about how to become a stand-up comedian, or some famous writer you may want to “chat” with.
However, have you ever stopped to think about whether or not the material that the AI chatbot generates for you infringes copyright? Or who can even claim rights to it?
The clear answer is rather muddled when you start to look. So, who owns ChatGPT? And who owns the output text that it generates? Read on to find out what we uncovered.
Who Owns ChatGPT?
Let’s start with the fairly easy stuff.
In a nutshell, OpenAI, which is the parent company of ChatGPT, was founded as a research organization that focused on advancing artificial intelligence (AI) in both a safe and beneficial way for its users.
In a nutshell, OpenAI, which is the parent company of ChatGPT, was founded as a research organization that focused on advancing artificial intelligence (AI) in both a safe and beneficial way for its users.
It was founded in 2015 by a group of leaders in AI technology, the most notable and famous being Tesla and Twitter owner Elon Musk. Sam Altman, the face of OpenAI who has been in the news recently; Ilya Sutskever, and a few others, who have been backed by investors that include Reid Hoffman, who is a co-founder of LinkedIn, and Khosla Ventures.
In 2019, OpenAI transitioned into a private for-profit company, when it changed its goal from researching artificial intelligence into attracting and retaining the tech talent that is able to now deliver on its efforts to research.
It also closed the source code on its LLM models at that time, making the word “open” in OpenAI a bit of a misnomer.
The company is still primarily owned by all of its founders and investors, so at present its stock is not being traded publicly on a stock exchange. Because it’s a private company, OpenAI has more control over its research and development efforts, although it is still subject to different regulations and requirements than other public companies.
OpenAI’s main purpose is to investigate, study, experiment and analyze a variety of AI-related fields, including natural large language processing, which ChatGPT was modeled on, computer vision, robotics, and more.
The emerging tech firm also develops and operates AI language models like ChatGPT, which are designed to generate human-like text based on user prompts. However, despite the change to its business structure, OpenAI is still committed to the future development of AI as a way of helping humanity as a whole.
Who Owns ChatGPT Outputs?
So now that you know who is considered to be the owner of the ChatGPT AI chatbot, you may be wondering who it is that owns the text that it actually generates for users. This is where things become a bit of a gray area.
One that may well be addressed directly by the courts in the future.
In general, copyright law is based on the principle that content that is created by people is protected from infringement. And because the algorithms that ChatGPT was based on were developed by people, some think that it is OpenAI that holds the copyright on those.
However, as far as the content ChatGPT produces being owned by OpenAI depends on the fine text in its terms of service agreement, which basically nobody reads.
By and large though, all users have the right of ownership to the content they receive from their prompts. However, it is possible that OpenAI will impose restrictions or limitations on users who try to get ChatGPT to generate content that is deemed illegal or that could be intended to harm.
All users have the right of ownership to the content they receive from their prompts. However, it is possible that OpenAI will impose restrictions or limitations on users who try to get ChatGPT to generate content that is deemed illegal or that could be intended to harm.
We decided to ask the AI chatbot itself for an answer to the question, who owns the text output. So, we asked:
@ChatGPT3 who owns the text content that you generate from prompts?
And here was the answer that it actually gave us:
As of my last update in September 2021, OpenAI generally retains no rights to the outputs generated by GPT-3 (or any subsequent version like me, GPT-4). The person or organization that uses the model to generate text usually owns the rights to that content. For example, if you are using GPT-4 right now, you would own the rights to the text I’m generating. However, usage could be subject to OpenAI’s usage policies, which might restrict certain types of content or use-cases. Always be sure to review the most current terms of service and usage policies from OpenAI.
However, because the output that is generated by ChatGPT isn’t considered a human creation, it’s not protected by copyright law.
It would seem, then, from its own terms of use policy that OpenAI does not own the content that ChatGPT generates, even when the chatbot told us it does. You can read for yourself by clicking here.
So, Can I Use The Output — Or Not?
The logical conclusion should probably be that in general, any user has the rights to the content generated from their prompts. That said, OpenAI could impose restrictions for things like illegal or harmful text.
But knowing that ChatGPT, as well as the new kid on the block ChatGPT-4, were built from a vast number of copyrighted data, such as books and newspapers, it still poses the question of the legality of large language models themselves, and how they are developed to summarize copyright material.
Because ChatGPT is able to generate text that may be the intellectual property of other authors, it is possible that the content you receive from it has infringed on someone else’s copyright, which means that you could theoretically get into trouble for using it, if some future court made a ruling.
Because ChatGPT is able to generate text that may be the intellectual property of other authors, it is possible that the content you receive from it has infringed on someone else’s copyright, which means that you could theoretically get into trouble for using it, if some future court made a ruling.
And then there is the ‘hallucinating’, or simply making things up, that ChatGPT is well known for. As an example, in a very recent lawsuit, New York lawyer Steven Schwartz of Levidow, Levidow & Oberman is facing a sanctions hearing, because he used ChatGPT to create a brief for one of his clients.
The client had filed a personal injury case against Avianca Airlines. However, the brief that Schwartz submitted cited six non-existent court cases, which he had been given by ChatGPT. In a court filing, he briefly stated that he “greatly regrets” using the technology, because he was “unaware of the possibility that its contents could be false”.
And because the professional conduct rules of the American Bar Association don’t explicitly indicate how AI can be used in briefs, there is a huge gray area that means it is very possible this won’t be the only case where a lawyer faces severe punishment for using it.
If you’re using ChatGPT for legal work, you need to review everything, consider confidentiality, and think carefully about how you use it.
Plus, there’s the ethical responsibility that lawyers have, due to their client’s confidentiality. If they are using generative AI models like ChatGPT to create briefs, then they should also be ensuring that they are using the technology in line with their ethics and values.
Final Thoughts
Who owns ChatGPT is a question that many people may have been wondering, so we’re happy to have answered that for you in this blog. The short answer is that OpenAI owns ChatGPT.
On the other hand, who owns the content that is generated by the AI chatbot is also something that should be considered, especially if you were wanting to use the answers to your prompts for commercial purposes.
Using ChatGPT can be both useful and fun, and it should remain that way. However, you should always consult OpenAI’s terms and conditions of service so that you understand your rights as a user before using anything that could land you in a spot of trouble.
