John Grisham and George RR Martin among 17 authors suing OpenAI for ‘theft’

Author John Grisham is among authors suing OpenAI over copyright issues (Joel Ryan/PA)

John Grisham, Jodi Picoult and George RR Martin are among 17 authors suing OpenAI for “systematic theft on a mass scale”, the latest legal action by writers concerned that artificial intelligence programmes are using their copyrighted works without permission.

In papers filed in federal court in New York, the authors alleged “flagrant and harmful infringements of plaintiffs’ registered copyrights” and called the ChatGPT programme a “massive commercial enterprise” that is reliant upon “systematic theft on a mass scale”.