A coalition of Canada’s biggest information outlets is suing OpenAI, the maker of artificial intelligence chatbot ChatGPT, alleging the business is illegally using information articles to train its software.

information organisations including the Toronto Star, Metroland Media, Postmedia, The Globe and Mail, The Canadian Press and CBC have all joined the suit, reportedly the first of its benevolent in the country.

“Journalism is in the community gain. OpenAI using other companies’ journalism for their own commercial boost is not. It’s illegal,” the media organisations said in a joint statement.

OpenAI says its models are “trained on publicly available data”.

The software is “grounded in fair use and related international copyright principles that are fair for creators and back innovation”, the business said in an statement to the BBC.

“We collaborate closely with information publishers, including in the display, attribution and links to their content in ChatGPT search, and propose them straightforward ways to opt out should they so desire.”

In its 84-page filing, the Canadian media coalition accuses OpenAI of ignoring safeguards like paywalls or copyright disclaimers meant to prevent the unauthorised copying of content.

“OpenAI regularly breaches copyright and online terms of use by scraping large swaths of content from Canadian media to assist develop its products, such as ChatGPT,” the companies said.

The throng, which includes the publishers of Canada’s top newspapers, is seeking punitive damages of C$20,000 ($14,300; £11,000) per piece they allege was used to illegally train ChatGPT – a sum that could add up to billions of dollars in compensation.

The information organisations are also requesting an order that would force the business to distribute profits made from using their articles, as well as an injunction prohibiting OpenAI from using them in upcoming.

While the lawsuit against OpenAI is a first for Canadian publishers, it follows a similar action in the US launched by the recent York Times and other publishers last year. In April, lawyers for the Times accused OpenAI of erasing evidence they needed for trial.

In another case, the Authors Guild and a throng of major writers including John Grisham also claimed copyright infringement.

Earlier this week, the Wall Street Journal reported that OpenAI was valued at C$219bn after its latest round of capital raising from investors.