Seattle Times and Newsday Sue OpenAI and Microsoft
The Seattle Times and Newsday have filed a lawsuit against OpenAI and Microsoft for using their journalism to train AI models without authorization.
Stock photo for illustration only, not from the actual event
- The Seattle Times and Newsday are the latest news organizations to sue OpenAI and Microsoft.
- The lawsuit argues that generative AI threatens to destroy the very journalism industry that feeds it.
- The Seattle Times lawsuit is notable because Microsoft and OpenAI previously funded its journalism projects.
News organizations The Seattle Times and Newsday have taken legal action against OpenAI and Microsoft, filing a lawsuit that alleges the tech giants used their copyrighted journalism to train artificial intelligence systems without proper authorization.
According to the court filing, the organizations warned that the rise of generative AI could leave the journalism industry broken beyond repair. The lawsuit vividly described the technology as a snake eating its own tail, capable of destroying the exact organizations that produce the original content required for AI training.
Stock photo for illustration only, not from the actual event
The legal complaint further criticized commercial AI products, stating that tools like ChatGPT and CoPilot are touted as content creators while acting as rapacious consumers that devour human-authored work and return derivative imitations to achieve their commercial goals.
This legal challenge follows a precedent set in 2023 when The New York Times first sued OpenAI and Microsoft over alleged copyright infringement. These ongoing legal battles highlight the growing tension between AI developers and publishers regarding fair use, compensation, and the future of digital content ownership.
The inclusion of The Seattle Times in this lawsuit is particularly striking because both Microsoft and OpenAI have previously provided funding for some of the publication's journalism projects and fellowships.
In response to the legal action, a Microsoft spokesperson told GeekWire that the company was surprised by the lawsuit, but emphasized that they remain always happy to sit down and explore solutions to this type of dispute.
Source: TechCrunch
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