- The New York Times sued OpenAI and Microsoft, alleging AI models like ChatGPT.
- Meanwhile, OpenAI pledged to work with publishers amid copyright conflicts.
- The lawsuit signals escalating battles around content scraping as more outlets are blocked by AI creators.
The New York Times on the legal warpath
Last week, the New York Times filed a lawsuit accusing AI researchers OpenAI and Microsoft of copyright infringement for allegedly using Times articles without permission to train generative AI models.
The complaint, filed in Federal District Court in Manhattan, contends millions of Times articles were scraped to develop popular AI apps like ChatGPT and Copilot.
The Times seeks financial damages and demands OpenAI and Microsoft “destroy” any models and data containing its content.
“If The Times and other news organizations cannot produce and protect their independent journalism, there will be a vacuum that no computer or artificial intelligence can fill,” the complaint states.
Claims of copyright infringement and AI competition
OpenAI said it aims to work constructively with publishers to ensure they benefit from AI technology and new revenue models.
But The Times argues its content is being used to build AI systems that directly compete with its journalism.
The lawsuit represents growing conflicts around using copyrighted material to develop generative AI apps.
Hundreds of outlets are now actively blocked from scraping by AI researchers.
