The Seattle Times and Newsday have sued OpenAI and Microsoft in federal court, accusing the tech companies of using the publications' journalism to train AI models, according to Mashable.
The lawsuit adds to a growing legal battle over whether chatbot companies cross a line when they train their systems on published reporting, particularly when that work is protected behind a paywall.
Here's what to know
In a lawsuit filed in the Southern District of New York, The Seattle Times and Newsday accuse OpenAI and Microsoft of scraping material from their websites without permission, including paywalled stories. The publications further allege that the tech companies then used the scraped materials in datasets that trained ChatGPT, Microsoft Copilot, and the new AI-powered Bing, according to Mashable.
The publishers say the chatbots can recite entire passages from copyrighted articles or closely mirror reporters' work. They are seeking destruction of the articles they claim were copied, as well as any datasets or AI models containing or trained on the materials.
More background
The case joins other copyright fights already facing OpenAI and Microsoft, including an ongoing lawsuit from The New York Times and other publishers.
According to Mashable, the Times has argued that AI products can compete with news organizations by reproducing their work without transforming it enough to qualify under current fair use protections. The new lawsuit from The Seattle Times and Newsday raises many of the same concerns, especially over the use of paywalled reporting.
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What's being done?
As AI content floods the internet, the copyright battle is largely playing out in court.
For its part, the current presidential administration has leaned politically toward AI companies. The U.S. Department of Justice has filed a Statement of Interest in the New York Times dispute, arguing counterintuitively that a ruling in favor of the New York Times would harm local newsrooms and independent journalism.
According to the DOJ's argument, AI technology could potentially help small publishers stay competitive against mainstream, relatively deep-pocketed news outlets like The Times, per Mashable.
The government's brief in support of the AI companies also says that a Times win would "threaten national security" by slowing AI advancement and giving foreign competitors an advantage.
In a message to employees, Seattle Times president and CEO Alan Fisco explained why the publication's leadership felt it necessary to take legal action against the powerful, multi-billion-dollar tech giants.
"We feel strongly that we must defend our content — which we spend millions of dollars a year to produce — from being used without our consent or compensation," Fisco said, according to Mashable.
Where can I learn more?
The copyright lawsuits are unfolding as criticism of AI grows on several fronts. While intellectual property concerns are part of the story, so are rising energy use, pressure on infrastructure, and public fears about security and jobs.
• Across the U.S., backlash against AI advancements is growing over jobs, water, electricity, and security.
• Utilities are signing unprecedented deals with data centers, as AI power demand surges.
• At MIT, Priya Donti developed AI system to optimize renewable power grids.
• Big Tech's AI boom is outrunning the power grid despite massive infrastructure spending.
• Engineers at Hugging Face are pushing for transparency in AI electricity use.
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