Class Action Alleges OpenAI, Microsoft Exploit AI to Collect, Share Private Information of Millions

OpenAI and Microsoft use AI products, “integrated into every industry,” to collect, store, track, share and disclose the private information of millions of users, alleged a privacy class action Wednesday (docket 3:23-cv-03199) in U.S. District Court for Northern California in San Francisco. The 16 plaintiffs are listed by their initials “to avoid intrusive scrutiny,” plus any “potentially dangerous backlash,” said the complaint.

The class action alleges OpenAI, with Microsoft’s financial backing, “doubled down on a strategy to secretly harvest massive amounts of personal data from the internet, including private information and private conversations, medical data, information about children.” The scheme involved “essentially every piece of data exchanged on the internet it could take -- without notice to the owners or users of such data, much less with anyone’s permission,” it said.

The 157-page complaint seeks a variety of remedies, including injunctive relief “in the form of a temporary freeze” on the commercialization of the products at issue, until OpenAI and Microsoft can certify to the court that their products won’t bring harm to the public. The defendants didn’t immediately comment.