https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/bvm3k5/github-users-file-a-class-action-lawsuit-against-microsoft-for-training-an-ai-tool-with-their-code

GitHub programmers have filed a class-action lawsuit against GitHub, its parent Microsoft, and its technology partner, OpenAI, for allegedly violating their open-source licenses and using their code to train Microsoft’s latest AI tool, called Copilot.

GitHub Copilot, which was launched in June, suggests code and functions to GitHub users in real time. Copilot is powered by Codex, an AI system that was created by OpenAI and licensed to Microsoft. According to OpenAI, Codex was trained on “millions of public repositories” and is “an instance of transformative fair use.” However, open-source programmers on GitHub disagree, claiming that Codex has violated their open-source licenses, which only allow non-commercial redistribution and modification of the code and often have restrictions including a requirement to preserve the name of the authors.