The New York Times sues OpenAI and Microsoft

The New York Times, the US-based news platform, has filed a lawsuit against OpenAI and Microsoft over copyright infringement, alleging the unauthorised use of millions of the newspaper's articles to train chatbots designed to deliver information to readers.

The Times said it is the first major U.S. media organisation to sue OpenAI, creator of the popular artificial-intelligence platform ChatGPT, and Microsoft, an OpenAI investor and creator of the AI platform now known as Copilot, over copyright issues associated with its works. Writers and others have also sued to limit the scraping or automatic collection of data by AI services of their online content without compensation.

The newspaper's complaint, filed in Manhattan federal court, accused OpenAI and Microsoft of trying to "free-ride on The Times's massive investment in its journalism" by using it to provide alternative means to deliver information to readers. "There is nothing 'transformative' about using The Times's content without payment to create products that substitute for The Times and steal audiences away from it," the Times said.

OpenAI and Microsoft have said that using copyrighted works to train AI products amounts to "fair use", a legal doctrine governing the unlicensed use of copyrighted material.  On its website, the U.S. Copyright Office says "transformative" uses add "something new, with a further purpose or character" and are "more likely to be considered fair".

The Times is not seeking a specific amount of damages, but estimated damages in the "billions of dollars." It also wants OpenAI and Microsoft to destroy chatbot models and training sets that incorporate its material. Talks to avert a lawsuit and allow "a mutually beneficial value exchange" with the defendants were unsuccessful, the 172-year-old newspaper said.

"We respect the rights of content creators and owners", OpenAI said in an emailed statement. "Our ongoing conversations with the New York Times have been productive and moving forward constructively, so we are surprised and disappointed with this development." Microsoft did not respond to requests for comment.

AI companies scrape information online to train generative AI chatbots, and have attracted billions of dollars in investments. Investors have valued OpenAI at more than $80 billion. While OpenAI's parent is a nonprofit, Microsoft has invested $13 billion in a for-profit subsidiary, for what would be a 49% stake.