The New York Times’ AI copyright lawsuit shows that forgiveness might not be better than permission.

'It is better to ask for forgiveness than to ask for permission' is a mindset that is particularly appreciated by the big companies currently at the apex of the artificial intelligence market. Between Microsoft and OpenAi, the concept of permission does not seem to be fundamentally clear, as both companies prefer to act as they see fit and handle the consequences in court, rather than follow the law.

Legal actions against the big names in the technology sector are not exactly surprising; since the rapid rise of artificial intelligence, we have heard more and more complaints against it, with, so far, little result.

In this case, we are talking about the misuse of illegally collected data, mainly used as material to 'train' the AI services of the companies mentioned above. The NYT's legal action, in fact, emphasises the repeated copyright violations perpetrated, and also denounces the serious damage suffered, both economically and in terms of reputation.