Seattle Times and Newsday Sue OpenAI and Microsoft Over AI Training Data

Two more news organizations are suing OpenAI and Microsoft over the supposed use of their journalism to train AI. A lawsuit filed by The Seattle Times and Newsday argued that with the advent of AI, the journalism industry could become “broken beyond repair.”

What the Lawsuit Alleges

The lawsuit described generative AI as “a snake eating its own tail” that could “destroy the very organizations” that produce the content it’s trained on.

“AI products like ChatGPT and CoPilot are touted as producers of content, but in fact they are rapacious consumers, devouring human-authored content and delivering back to the world copies and derivative imitations of that same original content they consumed to achieve their commercial objectives,” the lawsuit said.

Background

Back in 2023, The New York Times sued OpenAI and its partner/investor Microsoft over alleged copyright infringement. Other publications have followed suit as the case continued.

A Complicated Relationship

The Seattle Times’ lawsuit is particularly notable because Microsoft and OpenAI have funded some of the organization’s journalism projects and fellowships.

A Microsoft spokesperson told GeekWire that the company is “surprised by the lawsuit” but is “always happy to sit down and explore solutions to this type of dispute.”