HomeStudy: OpenAI Models Memorized Copyrighted Content
A recent study suggests that OpenAI may have indeed used copyrighted material to train some of its AI models, adding fuel to the ongoing legal battles the company faces. Authors, programmers, and other content creators have accused OpenAI of using their works—such as books and code—without permission to develop its AI models. While OpenAI has defended itself by claiming fair use, the plaintiffs argue that U.S. copyright law doesn't provide an exception for training data.
The study, a collaboration between researchers from the University of Washington, the University of Copenhagen, and Stanford, introduces a new technique for detecting "memorized" training data in models accessed through an API, like those from OpenAI. AI models essentially learn from vast amounts of data to recognize patterns, enabling them to create essays, images, and more. Although most outputs aren't direct copies of the training data, some inevitably are due to the learning process. For instance, image models have been known to reproduce movie screenshots, while language models have been caught essentially plagiarizing news articles.
The method described in the study focuses on "high-surprisal" words—words that are unusual in a given context. For example, in the sentence "Jack and I sat perfectly still with the radar humming," "radar" would be a high-surprisal word because it's less expected than words like "engine" or "radio" to precede "humming."
The researchers tested several OpenAI models, including GPT-4 and GPT-3.5, by removing high-surprisal words from excerpts of fiction books and New York Times articles and asking the models to predict these missing words. If the models accurately guessed the words, it suggested they had memorized the text during training.
An example of having a model “guess” a high-surprisal word.Image Credits:OpenAI The results indicated that GPT-4 had likely memorized parts of popular fiction books, including those in the BookMIA dataset of copyrighted ebooks. It also appeared to have memorized some New York Times articles, though at a lower frequency.
Abhilasha Ravichander, a doctoral student at the University of Washington and co-author of the study, emphasized to TechCrunch that these findings highlight the "contentious data" that might have been used to train these models. "In order to have large language models that are trustworthy, we need to have models that we can probe and audit and examine scientifically," Ravichander stated. "Our work aims to provide a tool to probe large language models, but there is a real need for greater data transparency in the whole ecosystem."
OpenAI has pushed for more relaxed rules on using copyrighted data to develop AI models. Although the company has some content licensing agreements and offers opt-out options for copyright holders, it has lobbied various governments to establish "fair use" rules specifically for AI training.
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Comments (34)
0/500
![DouglasScott]()
So OpenAI basically trained on copyrighted books and code without permission? Shocking absolutely no one. 😅 The real question is whether courts will actually make them pay damages or just slap a 'please don't do that again' fine. Either way, creators deserve better than being data fodder for billion-dollar models.
![JackAllen]()
这篇文章提到的版权问题确实让人担忧，以后AI生成的内容会不会都带着'侵权'的标签？想想就觉得挺讽刺的，毕竟这些模型训练数据不透明，普通用户根本不知道输出里夹带了什么'私货'。希望有更严格的管理办法吧。
![WilliamGonzalez]()
This is wild! OpenAI might’ve gobbled up copyrighted stuff to train their models? I’m not shocked, but it’s kinda shady. Hope those authors and coders get some justice! 😤
![GregoryBaker]()
This is wild! OpenAI might've trained their models on copyrighted stuff? 😳 I wonder how many books and code snippets got swept up in that data vacuum. Ethics in AI is such a messy topic right now.
![JohnGarcia]()
Me sorprendió un poco que OpenAI podría haber usado material con derechos de autor para entrenar sus modelos. Es un poco decepcionante, pero supongo que es el salvaje oeste allá en el mundo de la IA. 🤔 ¿Quizás deberían ser más cuidadosos la próxima vez?
![TimothyMitchell]()
OpenAIが著作権付きの資料を使ってAIを訓練しているという研究は本当に驚きですね！クリエイターにとっては残念ですが、AIの訓練方法について知るのは面白いです。もっと透明性が必要かもしれませんね？🤔
A recent study suggests that OpenAI may have indeed used copyrighted material to train some of its AI models, adding fuel to the ongoing legal battles the company faces. Authors, programmers, and other content creators have accused OpenAI of using their works—such as books and code—without permission to develop its AI models. While OpenAI has defended itself by claiming fair use, the plaintiffs argue that U.S. copyright law doesn't provide an exception for training data.
The study, a collaboration between researchers from the University of Washington, the University of Copenhagen, and Stanford, introduces a new technique for detecting "memorized" training data in models accessed through an API, like those from OpenAI. AI models essentially learn from vast amounts of data to recognize patterns, enabling them to create essays, images, and more. Although most outputs aren't direct copies of the training data, some inevitably are due to the learning process. For instance, image models have been known to reproduce movie screenshots, while language models have been caught essentially plagiarizing news articles.
The method described in the study focuses on "high-surprisal" words—words that are unusual in a given context. For example, in the sentence "Jack and I sat perfectly still with the radar humming," "radar" would be a high-surprisal word because it's less expected than words like "engine" or "radio" to precede "humming."
The researchers tested several OpenAI models, including GPT-4 and GPT-3.5, by removing high-surprisal words from excerpts of fiction books and New York Times articles and asking the models to predict these missing words. If the models accurately guessed the words, it suggested they had memorized the text during training.
Abhilasha Ravichander, a doctoral student at the University of Washington and co-author of the study, emphasized to TechCrunch that these findings highlight the "contentious data" that might have been used to train these models. "In order to have large language models that are trustworthy, we need to have models that we can probe and audit and examine scientifically," Ravichander stated. "Our work aims to provide a tool to probe large language models, but there is a real need for greater data transparency in the whole ecosystem."
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So OpenAI basically trained on copyrighted books and code without permission? Shocking absolutely no one. 😅 The real question is whether courts will actually make them pay damages or just slap a 'please don't do that again' fine. Either way, creators deserve better than being data fodder for billion-dollar models.
这篇文章提到的版权问题确实让人担忧，以后AI生成的内容会不会都带着'侵权'的标签？想想就觉得挺讽刺的，毕竟这些模型训练数据不透明，普通用户根本不知道输出里夹带了什么'私货'。希望有更严格的管理办法吧。
This is wild! OpenAI might’ve gobbled up copyrighted stuff to train their models? I’m not shocked, but it’s kinda shady. Hope those authors and coders get some justice! 😤
This is wild! OpenAI might've trained their models on copyrighted stuff? 😳 I wonder how many books and code snippets got swept up in that data vacuum. Ethics in AI is such a messy topic right now.
Me sorprendió un poco que OpenAI podría haber usado material con derechos de autor para entrenar sus modelos. Es un poco decepcionante, pero supongo que es el salvaje oeste allá en el mundo de la IA. 🤔 ¿Quizás deberían ser más cuidadosos la próxima vez?
OpenAIが著作権付きの資料を使ってAIを訓練しているという研究は本当に驚きですね！クリエイターにとっては残念ですが、AIの訓練方法について知るのは面白いです。もっと透明性が必要かもしれませんね？🤔
