The Seattle Times and Newsday have initiated legal proceedings against OpenAI and Microsoft, claiming in a federal lawsuit that the tech giants utilized their journalistic content without authorization to develop their artificial intelligence systems.
Filed in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York, the complaint alleges that both companies accessed the newspapers’ websites illegally, including material that is normally behind paywalls. This content was reportedly used in datasets to train various AI products, such as ChatGPT, Microsoft Copilot, and features within Bing.
According to the newspapers, the AI offerings from these companies can generate excerpts from their articles, paraphrase their content, and provide responses that diminish the necessity for users to visit their sites or subscribe to their publications.
Response from OpenAI and Microsoft
In reaction to the lawsuit, a representative from OpenAI stated that their models are built upon publicly accessible data and are compliant with fair use principles, although they refrained from addressing the specifics of the lawsuit itself.
Meanwhile, Microsoft expressed surprise at the legal action. A spokesperson conveyed that the company values local journalism and is open to dialogue to resolve such disputes.
Demands of the Plaintiffs
Seattle Times and Newsday are requesting the court to mandate the destruction of any copies of their articles, as well as any AI models or datasets that include their copyrighted material.
This lawsuit mirrors a similar case brought forth by The New York Times in 2023, which accused OpenAI and Microsoft of employing thousands of articles without permission in the training of OpenAI’s chatbot. This ongoing legal battle is part of a broader trend, with numerous copyright holders pursuing legal action against tech firms like OpenAI, Anthropic, and Meta, alleging that their content has been misappropriated for AI training purposes.
