Bloomberg Law Quotes Mark Lezama on AI Firm’s “Prompt Hacking” Defense Against Copyright Claims

Knobbe Martens litigation partner Mark Lezama was quoted in the Bloomberg Law story, “OpenAI Pushes Prompt-Hacking Defense to Deflect Copyright Claims”.

The article examines how, in defending against copyright lawsuits it is facing from publishers and authors, OpenAI Inc. is claiming its ChatGPT chatbot has been manipulated via so-called “prompt hacking.” The article notes that OpenAI has been seeking vast troves of documents from plaintiffs in these cases that point to manipulation of its chatbot to elicit a desired output. Such evidence, the company argues, would strengthen its position that training AI tools using copyrighted material isn’t infringing under fair use doctrine.

In the story, Mr. Lezama notes that OpenAI’s strategy seems less geared toward disputing the legal merits of copyright claims and more focused on trial strategy.

“You want to be able to show the jury ‘Look, the plaintiffs here, they’re trying to sell you something that doesn’t quite live up to what they’re promising,’” Mr. Lezama said. “‘What they haven’t told you, for every time they got a response they liked there were 100 or 1,000 other prompts they inputted that generated responses they didn’t like.’”

Read the full story on Bloomberg Law here [subscription may be required].