Publishers accuse OpenAI and Microsoft of “unprecedented” copyright infringement
The biggest theft of labor in human history?
The New York Times Building in Manhattan. Photo by Al Drago/Getty Images
- Publishers accuse OpenAI and Microsoft of copying millions of copyrighted articles to train ChatGPT, Copilot, and other AI models.
- The companies argue their use is fair use, but publishers say commercial AI products compete with their journalism.
- Internal documents allegedly show the companies valued news content and knew AI tools could reduce publisher traffic.
Key Takeaways by nexos.ai, reviewed by Cybernews staff.
OpenAI and Microsoft are alleged to have copied millions of copyrighted articles without the publishers’ permission to train their AI models, including ChatGPT and Copilot.
According to Brent Hecht, Microsoft’s director of applied science, the infringement can be considered “an astonishing theft of unprecedented proportions, perhaps the largest theft of labor in human history.”
OpenAI and Microsoft have defended their practices by arguing that they’re “fair use” and therefore permitted to use copyrighted works to train AI. Hecht strongly disagrees and says the trial would make “a complete mockery of the idea of fair use” if the court ruled in favor of the defendants.
The publishers, including The New York Times, The Daily News Plaintiffs, The Center for Investigative Reporting (CIR), and The Intercept Media, claim that copying copyright-protected works isn’t protected by fair use because the AI companies used the material commercially.
In addition, their products and services compete with the publishers’ own core businesses. Nick Turley, OpenAI’s Head of ChatGPT, even wrote that publishers face an “existential threat” from the company’s products.
According to internal OpenAI and Microsoft documents and testimony, the companies knew exactly how valuable news content was for training their large language models.
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Furthermore, employees recognized the potential economic harm to publishers, such as significant drops in click-through rates (CTR) for domains.
The publishers are asking the judge to resolve the issue in their favor and to reject OpenAI’s and Microsoft’s fair use arguments.
In 2023, The New York Times filed a lawsuit against OpenAI, alleging that the company unlawfully used the newspaper’s articles to train AI models, particularly ChatGPT, violating copyright law.
Many other news outlets in the United States and Canada followed suit, suing the tech company for allegedly using their articles to train models.
