The Seattle Times and Newsday have filed a lawsuit against OpenAI and Microsoft, claiming the companies used their journalism as training data without permission. The publishers allege that OpenAI’s models often reproduce passages from their reporting when answering user queries. This legal action mirrors previous suits filed by The New York Times, Ziff Davis, Merriam-Webster, and Encyclopedia Britannica. The two outlets also named Microsoft as a defendant because its Copilot service relies on OpenAI’s technology. They join nearly 400 local newspapers that recently sued the same defendants over similar copyright concerns.
The core issue is whether news organisations can control how their published work is used to train artificial intelligence systems. If courts rule in favour of the publishers, it could force AI developers to negotiate licensing fees for training data or implement stricter filtering on outputs. The outcome will define the financial relationship between traditional media and large technology firms.
- The suit specifically targets the reproduction of full articles in AI responses.
- Microsoft is included because Copilot integrates OpenAI models directly.
- This follows a wave of litigation from hundreds of local news outlets.
