Seattle Times and Newsday Sue OpenAI and Microsoft
The Seattle Times and Newsday have filed a lawsuit against OpenAI and Microsoft, alleging that the technology companies used their copyrighted journalism without permission to train artificial intelligence models, according to a report by TechCrunch. The legal complaint argues that generative artificial intelligence tools could leave the news industry broken beyond repair by consuming human authored content and generating derivative imitations.
The lawsuit contends that products including ChatGPT and Copilot act as rapacious consumers that undermine the commercial objectives of original content producers. The Seattle Times action is notable because Microsoft and OpenAI have previously funded some of the publication’s journalism projects and fellowships.
A Microsoft spokesperson told GeekWire that the company is surprised by the legal action but remains open to discussing solutions for the dispute. The new litigation follows similar copyright infringement lawsuits filed by other news organizations, beginning with The New York Times action against OpenAI and Microsoft in 2023, as publishers increasingly challenge how technology firms source training data for artificial intelligence systems.
Based on reporting by techcrunch.com.
