The Seattle Times and Newsday have sued OpenAI and Microsoft, alleging that their journalism was used to train artificial intelligence systems without permission.
The publishers warn in their lawsuit that the rapid expansion of generative AI could leave the news industry “broken beyond repair” by allowing technology companies to profit from work produced by news organisations.
The claim describes generative AI as “a snake eating its own tail”, arguing that the technology could ultimately “destroy the very organizations” responsible for creating the journalism on which it relies.
It alleges that products including ChatGPT and Microsoft’s Copilot consume large volumes of human-written material before producing content that reproduces or imitates the original work.
“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 states.
The case adds to a growing series of legal challenges brought by publishers against OpenAI and Microsoft. The New York Times sued the companies in 2023, alleging copyright infringement, and other publications have since launched similar proceedings.
The Seattle Times’ action is notable because Microsoft and OpenAI have funded some of the organisation’s journalism projects and fellowships.
A Microsoft spokesperson told GeekWire that the company was “surprised by the lawsuit” but remained “always happy to sit down and explore solutions to this type of dispute”.
