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Encyclopedia Britannica is suing OpenAI for allegedly ‘memorizing’ its content with ChatGPT

The Verge / 3/17/2026

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Key Points

  • Encyclopedia Britannica and Merriam-Webster filed a lawsuit against OpenAI alleging that it trained its AI on their copyrighted content without permission and that GPT-4 memorized substantial portions, producing near-verbatim outputs on demand.
  • The lawsuit claims that these memorized examples are unauthorized copies used to train OpenAI's models, highlighting concerns over data licensing and training practices for large language models.
  • Reuters reported on the lawsuit and The Verge provides further coverage, underscoring legal and policy implications for AI training data usage.
  • The case could prompt changes in data sourcing, licensing requirements, and compliance practices for AI developers and platforms, with potential ripple effects across the AI industry.

On Friday, Encyclopedia Britannica and dictionary publisher Merriam-Webster filed a lawsuit against OpenAI alleging that it used their copyrighted content to train its AI, then generated responses that were "substantially similar" to their content, as previously reported by Reuters.

According to Britannica, OpenAI repeatedly copied its content without permission, stating, "GPT-4 itself has 'memorized' much of Britannica's copyrighted content and will output near-verbatim copies of significant portions on demand. The memorized examples are unauthorized copies that [OpenAI] used to train their models, including GPT-4."

The lawsuit goes on …

Read the full story at The Verge.