News Outlets Sue OpenAI and Microsoft Over Unauthorized Use of Journalism

The Seattle Times and Newsday have taken legal action against OpenAI and Microsoft for allegedly using their journalism without permission to develop and run AI systems.

The newspapers claim that the tech companies used content from their sites, including articles locked behind paywalls, and added it to datasets used to train OpenAI's ChatGPT, Microsoft Copilot, and AI features in Bing.

According to the lawsuit, the companies copied hundreds of thousands of articles without asking or paying for them. The newspapers say that AI systems can generate sections of their reporting word-for-word, closely paraphrase whole articles, and answer user questions in ways that make people less likely to visit the original websites or sign up for paid subscriptions.

The Seattle Times and Newsday are seeking compensation for the unauthorized use of their content. They also want the court to order OpenAI and Microsoft to destroy all copies of their work, as well as any datasets and AI models that include their journalism.