Google CEO Sundar Pichai and OpenAI Lock Horns over YouTube Misuse in AI Training—Company Promises Action

Google and its CEO, Sundar Pichai, will not back down against OpenAI if it misuses YouTube's data and content for its AI training, saying that the company will take action if this is proven true.

While the exact course of action remains unknown, Pichai only said that they would "sort it out" with the Microsoft-backed company led by Sam Altman if it was used.

Google, Sundar Pichai vs. OpenAI: YouTube Misuse AI Training

After the keynote speech on Google's I/O 2024 event, Sundar Pichai revealed in an interview with CNBC that it would "sort it out" if it found OpenAI misused YouTube's data for its AI training.

This was after Pichai was presented with the information behind OpenAI and admitted that it may or may not have used YouTube's data to train its latest generative AI video creator, Sora.

This information came from OpenAI's chief technology officer, Mira Murati, who previously told The Wall Street Journal that she is unsure if the company used YouTube's data for its Sora training.

Murati later said that it used publicly available and licensed data for it, but The New York Times claimed that OpenAI processed millions of hours of YouTube uploads.

Google and its CEO to Take Action Against OpenAI?

While sorting it out means many things, Pichai's response to the issue did not blatantly claim that there would be an upcoming lawsuit against OpenAI if it was proven that this took place.

Pichai stated that Alphabet and Google have "clear terms of service," saying that this is on OpenAI's hands, and further said that they engage with companies to ensure they understand their policies.

Google's Data and YouTube is Exclusive For its AI

It is widely known that AI needs training before it can become what the world knows, and there have been massive issues since its introduction about how it used data without consent from its rightful owners.

In 2023, Google updated its privacy policy, which gave its AI team the right to scrape publicly shared online content to power its systems.

On the other hand, the rival company, OpenAI, is also notorious for facing massive lawsuits for copying works off the internet from various mediums or disciplines.

Amongst its most stellar cases were suits from authors and writers who came together to launch specific lawsuits against the company's allegedly illegal access, citing copyright claims against the ChatGPT and DALL-E creators.

Artists, internet users, and privacy advocates have all fought against AI companies since the dawn of AI in the world in late 2022 and early 2023.

However, now, it is one AI company against the other, with Google, known for its massive focus on tech, claiming that it will sort out the issues with OpenAI should it be found to have misused YouTube's data for AI training.