YouTube’s CEO Neal Mohan has issued a warning, emphasizing that utilizing videos from the platform to train an artificial intelligence (AI) model would constitute a “clear violation” of YouTube’s terms and conditions. This statement follows OpenAI’s announcement of “Sora,” which generated significant buzz earlier this year.
In an interview with Bloomberg, Mohan made his first public statements on OpenAI’s Sora, which was announced earlier this year to much fanfare and excitement.
“From a creator’s perspective, when a creator uploads their hard work to our platform, they have certain expectations. One of those expectations is that the terms of service is going to be abided by. It does not allow for things like transcripts or video bits to be downloaded, and that is a clear violation of our terms of service. Those are the rules of the road in terms of content on our platform.”
In March, OpenAI’s CTO Mira Murati discussed the new generative AI tool, Sora, with The Wall Street Journal. When questioned about the tool’s training data, Murati mentioned using publicly available and licensed data but was uncertain about the inclusion of content from platforms like YouTube, Instagram, and Facebook.
OpenAI has already faced questions about its training data
OpenAI’s practices regarding training data have sparked concerns and legal challenges. The company’s lack of transparency regarding the sources of training data has led to lawsuits, including one from comedian Sarah Silverman and other authors, who allege that copyrighted materials were used without permission. Additionally, The New York Times has filed a lawsuit against OpenAI for copyright infringement related to their use of copyrighted material. Despite these legal challenges, OpenAI reportedly plans to utilize YouTube video transcripts for training ChatGPT-5, indicating a continued disregard for the legal ramifications of their actions.
