Microsoft Exec Admits AI 'Theft of Unprecedented Proportions'

A court filing has revealed that Microsoft's Director of Applied Science, Brent Hecht, believes AI systems built on the work of others will be seen as 'an astonishing theft of unprecedented proportions' and possibly the greatest robbery of labor in human history.

In a motion for summary judgment filed by newspapers including The New York Times and the Orange County Register against Microsoft and OpenAI, lawyers pointed to Hecht's comments from a document written soon after the suit was filed.

'[M]illions of people around the world will soon consider large models 'hoovering up' all their work to be an astonishing theft of unprecedented proportions,' which could pose the 'largest theft of labor in human history.'

The newspapers argue that Microsoft's Copilot and OpenAI's ChatGPT are harming their business models by training LLMs on stolen stories, which are then regurgitated to users without credit, in violation of copyright laws.