Two U.S. Newspapers File Copyright Suit Against OpenAI and Microsoft

The Seattle Times and Newsday have filed a joint lawsuit against OpenAI and its major backer Microsoft, accusing the companies of using their published journalism to train large language models without a license. The newspapers argue that their reporting was scraped and fed into AI systems, which then regurgitate substantial excerpts from paywalled articles when users ask questions. This marks the first time two major U.S. daily newspapers have joined forces in such an action against the AI developer.

The complaint centers on two alleged harms: the unauthorized copying of articles during model training, and the systems' tendency to produce near-verbatim passages from those articles in chat responses. The outlets contend this behavior undermines their subscription business and devalues original reporting. They are seeking unspecified damages and an injunction to prevent further use of their content, though they have not demanded the deletion of existing models.

The suit adds to a growing wave of litigation from media companies, authors, and artists who claim OpenAI built its products on copyrighted material. While some publishers have negotiated licensing deals with the company, others have chosen to press their claims in court. Observers expect the case to hinge on whether the fair use doctrine shields AI training practices, a question that has not yet been resolved in U.S. courts.