YouTube CEO warns OpenAI against training models on its videos

Neal Mohan, CEO of YouTube, has issued a warning to OpenAI regarding the use of its platform's videos for training AI models.

The warning comes in response to OpenAI's recent uncertainty about whether its new text-to-video AI tool, Sora, uses data from YouTube content. Mohan emphasized that such actions would present a "clear violation" of YouTube's terms of service.

In an interview with Bloomberg Originals, Mohan stressed:

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.

The controversy surrounding OpenAI's training methods, particularly concerning Sora, ChatGPT, and DALL-E, remains unresolved. Recent reports indicate OpenAI's intentions to utilize YouTube video transcriptions for training its forthcoming AI model, GPT-5. Meanwhile, Mohan noted that Google, YouTube's parent company, ensures compliance with content licensing contracts, indicating a commitment to respecting creators' rights.