Seattle Times and Newsday Sue OpenAI and Microsoft Over AI Training
Original: Seattle Times and Newsday are the latest publications to sue OpenAI and Microsoft
Why This Matters
The growing wave of media lawsuits signals a critical legal and financial reckoning for AI companies relying on copyrighted content.
The Seattle Times and Newsday have filed a lawsuit against OpenAI and Microsoft, alleging their journalism was used without permission to train AI systems. The suit warns the journalism industry could become 'broken beyond repair' due to generative AI.
Two major U.S. news organizations, The Seattle Times and Newsday, have joined a growing wave of media companies suing OpenAI and Microsoft over alleged unauthorized use of copyrighted journalism to train AI models. The lawsuit describes generative AI as 'a snake eating its own tail,' warning it could 'destroy the very organizations' that produce the content it relies on. The filing states: '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.' The case follows The New York Times' landmark 2023 lawsuit against OpenAI and Microsoft for alleged copyright infringement, which prompted numerous other publications to file similar suits. Notably, The Seattle Times lawsuit carries added complexity: both Microsoft and OpenAI have previously funded journalism projects and fellowships at the publication. A Microsoft spokesperson told GeekWire the company is 'surprised by the lawsuit' but is 'always happy to sit down and explore solutions to this type of dispute.'