The New York Times files lawsuit against OpenAI and Microsoft for AI models’ copyright infringement

The New York Times has taken legal action against OpenAI and Microsoft, accusing them of using the newspaper’s copyrighted content without permission to train their AI models. This lawsuit has intensified the ongoing dispute between publishers and AI companies, as regulatory bodies grapple with how to effectively regulate and oversee the data used to train AI models.

In its report, the NYT said, “The Times is the first major American media organization to sue companies, the creators of ChatGPT and other popular A.I. platforms over copyright issues related to its literary works.” The suit has been filed in federal district court in Manhattan. It should be noted that the suit does not include specific monetary damages .

NYT is suing OpenAI and Microsoft

“Defendants seek to exploit The Times’ massive investment in its journalism by using it to build substitute products without permission or payment,” according to the complaint filed in federal court in Manhattan.

The NYT’s main contention is that the defendant companies’ AI systems used millions of newspaper articles without permission to train them.

Although the plaintiff has no specific monetary claim, it has argued that the defendants should be liable for “billions of dollars in statutory and actual damages” for “the unlawful copying and use of uniquely valuable works of The Times.” The lawsuit also calls for the destruction of any AI tools or chatbots and educational data that use its copyrighted material.

OpenAI and Microsoft have not issued a statement at this time.

NYT is not the only organization that has filed copyright infringement lawsuits against OpenAI and Microsoft. In November 2023, a group of nonfiction writers also filed a similar lawsuit, alleging that the defendants misused the nonfiction writers’ work to train the AI models behind services such as OpenAI’s chatbot ChatGPT. This class action is being led by Hollywood Reporter reporter Julian Sancton in federal court in Manhattan.

The lawsuit is one of several filed by groups of copyright owners, including authors John Grisham, George R.R. Martin and Jonathan Franzen, have sued OpenAI and other tech companies for allegedly misusing their work to train artificial intelligence systems. The companies have denied the allegations.