The Seattle Times and Newsday filed a lawsuit against OpenAI and Microsoft over the alleged use of their journalism to train artificial intelligence, TechCrunch reported. The Verge also independently reported the legal filing.
Both news organizations argued that the rise of artificial intelligence could leave journalism “broken beyond repair.” The lawsuit described generative AI as “a snake eating its own tail” that could “destroy the very organizations” that produce the reporting it is trained on.
The complaint specifically challenged how the technology companies position their automated tools. “AI products like ChatGPT and CoPilot are touted as producers of content, but in fact they are rapacious consumers, devouring human-authored content and delivering back to the world copies and derivative imitations of that same original content they consumed to achieve their commercial objectives,” the lawsuit said.
The New York Times previously sued OpenAI and its investor and partner Microsoft over alleged copyright infringement back in 2023. Other publications have since followed suit as that initial case continued. The Seattle Times’ lawsuit is particularly notable because Microsoft and OpenAI have funded some of the organization’s journalism projects and fellowships.
A Microsoft spokesperson addressed the new claims in remarks to GeekWire. The spokesperson said Microsoft is “surprised by the lawsuit” but is “always happy to sit down and explore solutions to this type of dispute.”
