The Times sues OpenAI & Microsoft ⚖️ | New NIMC guidelines 📜

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

The New York Times Takes on OpenAI and Microsoft in Copyright Lawsuit

In a significant escalation of the legal battles surrounding the use of published content to train artificial intelligence (A.I.) technologies, The New York Times has filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against OpenAI and Microsoft. This move marks the first instance of a major American media organization taking legal action against A.I. developers, including the creators of ChatGPT and other popular A.I. platforms.

The lawsuit, filed in Federal District Court in Manhattan, alleges that millions of articles published by The Times were utilized to train automated chatbots. These chatbots, the suit claims, now pose as direct competitors to The Times by providing reliable information, thereby impacting the news outlet’s readership. While the lawsuit does not specify a monetary demand, it asserts that the defendants should be held accountable for “billions of dollars in statutory and actual damages” resulting from the “unlawful copying and use of The Times’s uniquely valuable works.”…..read more

IDENTITY MANAGEMENT

National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) implements stricter guidelines for NIN Date of Birth modifications

The National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) has introduced new guidelines for Nigerians seeking to change their date of birth on the National Identification Number (NIN) database.

According to the recent directive released by the commission, applicants will now be required to submit an electronic civil registration and vital statistics system (e-CRVS) certificate issued by the National Population Commission (NPC) along with other valid documents.

Previously, the modification of age and other details on the NIN system only necessitated affidavits and a payment of N15,000. However, under the new guidelines, the date of birth modification can now only be done once in a lifetime and exclusively at NIMC enrolment centers..…..read more

OTHER STORIES

• Nigerian competition watchdog fines British American Tobacco $110 million. Nigeria's competition commission has ordered British American Tobacco (BAT) to pay a $110 million fine following allegations of market dominance abuse and infringement of public health regulations, the watchdog said on Wednesday. The Federal Competition & Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC) said the maker of Lucky Strike and Dunhill cigarettes had also penalised retailers for providing equal platforms for its competitors' products…..read more

• Amazon Prime Video will start showing ads on January 29th. Earlier this year, Amazon announced plans to start incorporating ads into movies and TV shows streamed from its Prime Video service, and now the company has revealed a specific date when you’ll start seeing them: it’s January 29th. “This will allow us to continue investing in compelling content and keep increasing that investment over a long period of time,” the company said in an email to customers about the pending shift to “limited advertisements.”…read more