The Seattle Times and Newsday have filed a lawsuit against OpenAI and Microsoft, alleging copyright infringement. The two media outlets claim that the companies utilized their journalism as training data for AI models without obtaining permission and frequently reproduce passages from their reporting in response to user queries.
A Growing Wave of Litigation
This legal action mirrors previous lawsuits filed by major entities including The New York Times, Ziff Davis, Merriam-Webster, and Encyclopedia Britannica. Microsoft is named as a defendant due to its Copilot assistant being built upon OpenAI’s underlying technology.
The publishers join a coalition of nearly 400 local newspapers that have recently sued the tech giants. They argue that because AI chatbots reduce the necessity for users to visit original news sites for information, they are suffering a direct loss in subscription revenue.
Demanding the Destruction of Models
As part of their legal pursuit, The Seattle Times and Newsday are seeking the destruction of any copies of their copyrighted works held by the companies. Crucially, they are also calling for the destruction of training datasets and the AI models themselves that incorporate their intellectual property. OpenAI and Microsoft did not immediately respond to requests for comment regarding the suit.
