OpenAI and Microsoft are facing a class action lawsuit over alleged privacy and copyright law violations. Ryan Clarkson, Clarkson Founder and Managing Partner, tells Yahoo Finance Live about his suit against the tech companies.
Video Transcript
RACHELLE AKUFFO: Well, in the past year or so, generative AI has taken the world by storm and has become the most sought after technological innovation for companies and people. Now, a new report from McKinsey found that generative AI could add the equivalent of $2.6 trillion to 4.4 trillion US dollars across various industries. And a study from Capgemini Research Institute has found that 73% of global consumers trust content that is created by AI, but there are still many misgivings about it and many things that we don't understand about the technology itself.
Perhaps that question that best synthesizes the overall worry is, does AI violate privacy rights and intellectual property? Our next guest argues that generative AI most certainly does. Let's bring in Clarkson founder and managing partner, Ryan Clarkson, in to discuss his firm's latest lawsuit against OpenAI and Microsoft. Thank you for joining me this morning. So break down first the allegations that you have against OpenAI.
RYAN CLARKSON: Let me start by saying that AI presents one of the greatest opportunities and the greatest challenges in human history. This is a transformative technology that can do much good in the world, from curing diseases and solving climate change, but we need to do it responsibly.
OpenAI and Microsoft have created an 'AI arms race' and they've released this untested technology into the world without appropriate safeguards, leading AI researchers, like the godfather of AI, Dr. Geoffrey Hinton, all agree that if we continue on this path, we are putting humanity at risk, both in the long term and in the short term, with risks already unfolding every single day.
Things like the proliferation of lies and deepfakes and scams, the erosion of privacy, even widespread job loss. So if you look at OpenAI's CEO, Sam Altman, and Microsoft's former CEO, Bill Gates, they both have signed on to open letters stating their belief that the dangers posed by AI need to be considered with other societal scale risks like global pandemics and nuclear war.
We cannot afford to get this wrong. So what our lawsuit seeks is for a freeze on the commercial access and development of these untested and unproven technologies unless and until the safety, privacy, and property rights of ordinary people can be implemented using a system of human ethics and human values.
RACHELLE AKUFFO: So Ryan, but how much of an uphill battle is it going to be? As you said, a lot of this is unproven technology. We don't have much precedent for this and regulators themselves have not come to any conclusions. Is a class action lawsuit the best way to go about this?
RYAN CLARKSON: Theft of personal information at scale is not a lawful business model. And that's exactly what these companies have done. They've stolen the personal information of hundreds of millions of Americans, including children of all ages, their creative works, their professional works, their photographs, all of it used to feed an AI model that is unpredictable and dangerous. No one consented for the use of their information in that way and no one was given an opportunity to opt out.
Now, the government, both from the legislative branch and the executive branch, are looking into commonsense regulations. Except they're not moving as quickly as this technology, because they were not designed to do so. So we are going to ask the courts to apply these unprecedented facts and circumstances to well-established property and privacy law.
RACHELLE AKUFFO: And what do you think this unlocks? Because, I mean, a lot of people were sort of using it at their companies, potentially putting data from their companies into ChatGPT and putting themselves out that way, on top of it also getting data that was scraped without people's knowledge. What sort of snowball effect could this have?
RYAN CLARKSON: Well, I think it has the potential to be a huge snowball effect. We have been duped by big tech into believing that there is this Sophie's choice that exists. Either we participate online and participate in transacting business and communicating on the internet, but we waive all of our privacy and property rights, or we simply don't engage in activity on the internet. That is a false choice. Simply by virtue of engaging in human life on the internet, we do not waive our privacy or our property rights.
RACHELLE AKUFFO: And so with that in mind, I mean, you've noted to us that this isn't about having an antagonistic relationship with AI. Obviously, it can do a lot of potential good here. But what is the outcome that you're actually looking for then with this class action lawsuit?
RYAN CLARKSON: Well, we're looking to come together on this issue. People on all sides of this issue want common sense safety protocols implemented into this technology across government, industry, nonprofits. And this is an opportunity for ordinary people to have their voices heard as well. And thus far, their reaction has been overwhelmingly positive.
We've heard from concerned citizens, from other potential class members, from whistleblowers coming forward to share their stories. And I'd encourage all of your viewers, Rachelle, to do the same visit together on .AI to learn more, to take action and to join our case and our cause.
RACHELLE AKUFFO: But I do want to ask in terms of damages, what sort of recourse is it that your clients are seeking?
RYAN CLARKSON: Well, our information is valuable and it belongs to us. We need not look any further than the statistic that you just put up before this segment about the amount of money that is being invested into the economy in AI. Look at the young company OpenAI's valuation of almost $30 billion already. Look at the market cap increase of hundreds of billions of dollars for Microsoft since the announcement of their partnership with OpenAI.
Big data, and our personal information is big business and it has value. And what we're seeking is compensation for everyone whose personal information was stolen to train these AI models, which would be worthless without it.
RACHELLE AKUFFO: Indeed good data, good quality data really is the key that when it comes to generative AI. A big Thank you there to Clarkson founder and managing partner, Ryan Clarkson. We'll be keeping track of that lawsuit. Thank you for joining us this morning.
