Nvidia is facing a class-action lawsuit accusing its AI platform NeMo of infringing copyright by using works without permission. This legal challenge comes at a time when Nvidia has been aggressively advancing in the AI field, reflected in its soaring stock prices.

The tech giant, headquartered in Santa Clara, California, has been focusing on both hardware and software development to lead the AI revolution. While enhancing hardware for machine learning, Nvidia has also made strides in software innovation, with successful technologies like DLSS for upscaling and frame generation.

Allegations Against Nvidia's Generative AI

Nvidia expanded its AI efforts to generative models like NeMo, a cloud framework for creating AI models similar to ChatGPT. The lawsuit was initiated by authors Abdi Nazemian, Brian Keene, and Stewart O'Nan, who claim their works were used in NeMo's training dataset without authorization, alleging copyright infringement.

The dataset under scrutiny contained over 196,000 books until it was removed in October 2023 due to copyright complaints. The authors are seeking damages for the unauthorized use of their works for commercial gain, though the exact compensation sought remains unspecified.

This lawsuit echoes previous cases, including one against OpenAI in 2023, where authors challenged the use of their works in training AI models for commercial purposes. The legal battles highlight the complex intersection of copyright law and AI-generated content.

While US courts are yet to establish clear guidelines on copyright in AI-generated writing, a ruling in August 2023 decreed that AI-generated art cannot be copyrighted as the models are trained on copyrighted materials. This blurs the line between derivative and plagiarized works, posing challenges for distinguishing originality in AI-generated content.