AI Concerns Highlight Microsoft and OpenAI News Content Use

Unsealed court documents have revealed internal discussions at Microsoft and OpenAI about the use of news content to train artificial intelligence systems. The companies' concerns arise from a copyright case against them filed by news organizations, including The New York Times.

The unsealed documents show that Microsoft Director of Applied Science Brent Hecht expressed worries that using news articles for AI training could amount to widespread theft of publishers' work and questioned whether the practice could qualify as fair use. OpenAI executive Nick Turley acknowledged that AI products pose an 'existential threat' to publishers by providing information that users might otherwise obtain from news websites.

The filing cited Microsoft data showing click-through rates for some news organizations had fallen by as much as 93 percent, implying that users may have less reason to visit news websites when chatbots provide information directly. OpenAI employees reportedly shared this concern.