NY Times sues OpenAI, Microsoft over AI copyright
NEW YORK, UNITED STATES — The New York Times filed a groundbreaking lawsuit against tech giants Microsoft and OpenAI, alleging they infringed copyrights by using Times articles without permission to train artificial intelligence (AI) systems like ChatGPT.
The Times seeks “billions of dollars in statutory and actual damages” and demands the companies destroy any AI models and data containing its copyrighted content.
The Times specifically accused Microsoft and OpenAI of scraping millions of articles to improve AI comprehension, undermining the value of Times journalism and subscriptions.
“Defendants seek to free-ride on The Times’s massive investment in its journalism by using it to build substitutive products without permission or payment,” the complaint stated.
Microsoft has no comment on the case, but OpenAI spokeswoman Lindsey Held expressed surprise and disappointment, stating OpenAI’s commitment to creators’ rights.
“We’re hopeful that we will find a mutually beneficial way to work together, as we are doing with many other publishers,” said Held.
OpenAI, backed by over $13 billion from Microsoft, developed ChatGPT and other advanced natural language AI technologies increasingly rivaling human intelligence. The Times, on the other hand, publishes digital and print products with over 3 million registered, copyrighted works.
