By David Ljunggren

OTTAWA (Reuters) -Five Canadian news media companies filed a legal action on Friday against ChatGPT owner OpenAI, accusing the artificial-intelligence company of regularly breaching copyright and online terms of use.

The case is part of a wave of lawsuits against OpenAI and other tech companies by authors, visual artists, music publishers and other copyright owners over data used to train generative AI systems. Microsoft is OpenAI’s major backer.

In a statement, Torstar, Postmedia, The Globe and Mail, The Canadian Press, and CBC/Radio-Canada said OpenAI was scraping large swaths of content to develop its products without getting permission or compensating content owners.

“Journalism is in the public interest. OpenAI using other companies’ journalism for their own commercial gain is not. It’s illegal,” they said.

A New York federal judge dismissed a lawsuit on Nov. 7 against OpenAI that claimed it misused articles from news outlets Raw Story and AlterNet.

In an 84-page statement of claim filed in Ontario’s superior court of justice, the five Canadian companies demanded damages from OpenAI and a permanent injunction preventing it from using their material without consent.

“Rather than seek to obtain the information legally, OpenAI has elected to brazenly misappropriate the News Media Companies’ valuable intellectual property and convert it for its own uses, including commercial uses, without consent or consideration,” they said in the filing.

“The News Media Companies have never received from OpenAI any form of consideration, including payment, in exchange for OpenAI’s use of their Works.”

In response, OpenAI said its models were trained on publicly available data, grounded in fair use and related international copyright principles that were fair for creators.

“We collaborate closely with news publishers, including in the display, attribution and links to their content in ChatGPT search, and offer them easy ways to opt out should they so desire,” a spokesperson said via email.

The Canadian news companies’ document did not mention Microsoft. This month, billionaire Elon Musk expanded a lawsuit against OpenAI to include Microsoft, alleging the two companies illegally sought to monopolize the market for generative AI and sideline competitors.

(Reporting by David Ljunggren; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama, Chris Reese and Rod Nickel)

Two U.S. Navy destroyers repelled an attack by Iranian-backed Houthi rebels on American ships over the weekend, U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) says. 

“U.S. Navy destroyers USS Stockdale and the USS O’Kane successfully defeated a range of Houthi-launched weapons while transiting the Gulf of Aden, Nov. 30-Dec. 1,” U.S. Central Command said in a statement. “The destroyers were escorting three U.S. owned, operated, flagged merchant vessels and the reckless attacks resulted in no injuries and no damage to any vessels, civilian or U.S. Naval.” 

“The destroyers successfully engaged and defeated three anti-ship ballistic missiles, three one-way attack uncrewed aerial systems, and one anti-ship cruise missile, ensuring the safety of the ships and their personnel, as well as civilian vessels and their crews,” the statement continued. 

“These actions reflect the ongoing commitment of CENTCOM forces to protect U.S. personnel, regional partners, and international shipping, against attacks by Iran-backed Houthis,” CENTCOM added. 

RUSSIA TRICKS YEMENI MEN TO FIGHT IN UKRAINE UNDER HOUTHI SCHEME 

The attack came weeks after U.S. forces conducted retaliatory strikes against Houthi weapons storage facilities in Yemen. 

The facilities targeted in mid-November were all located in Houthi-controlled territories and housed a variety of advanced conventional weapons used by Houthis to target U.S. and other international military – as well as civilian – vessels moving through the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden. 

US FORCES TARGET HOUTHI WEAPONS STORAGE FACILITIES IN YEMEN 

The guided-missile destroyer USS O’Kane makes its way out of Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, in 2010. USS O’Kane also helped repel the attack by the Houthis. (MC2 Mark Logico/U.S. Navy via Getty Images)

U.S. Air Force and Navy assets, including the F-35C, were used during the operation.  

This marked the first time the F-35C stealth strike fighter had ever been used in combat, a U.S. defense official told Fox News. 

Houthi rebel fighters march during a rally of support for the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and against the U.S. strikes on Yemen outside Sanaa on Jan. 22. (AP )

The strikes also aimed to degrade the group’s ability to threaten partners in the region. 

Fox News’ Greg Wehner and Liz Friden contributed to this report.