Newspapers allege copyright infringement in lawsuit against OpenAI and Microsoft

Eight newspapers owned by Alden Global Capital sued OpenAI and Microsoft on Tuesday, accusing the technology companies of illegally using copyrighted articles to train their artificial intelligence (AI) models.

The New York Daily News, Chicago Tribune, Orlando Sentinel, Sun-Sentinel, Mercury News, Denver Post, Orange County Register and St. Paul Pioneer Press argue that companies used “millions” of articles without permission to “fuel the marketing” of its generative AI products such as ChatGPT from OpenAI and Copilot from Microsoft.

“Microsoft and OpenAI simply take the work product of reporters, journalists, editorial writers, editors and others who contribute to the work of local newspapers – all without any regard for the efforts, much less the legal rights, of those who create and publish o news that local communities depend on,” the lawsuit alleges.

In addition to initially scraping their articles to train the AI ​​models, the newspapers also claim that Microsoft and OpenAI’s generative AI systems “offer their users content that is identical or a lightly masked version of the newspapers’ content.”

AI models are also subject to hallucinations that incorrectly attribute inaccurate reporting to newspapers, which they say are “actively tarnishing newspapers’ reputations and spreading dangerous misinformation.”

While the lawsuit targets OpenAI and Microsoft over their individual AI models, it also notes the close relationship between the AI ​​startup and the tech giant. Microsoft has invested billions of dollars in OpenAI, drawing scrutiny from US and UK regulators.

The New York Times similarly sued OpenAI and Microsoft for copyright infringement in December.

Others in the news industry have struck licensing deals with technology companies. The Financial Times announced on Monday that it has signed an agreement with OpenAI, allowing its content to be used in response to ChatGPT queries.

The Associated Press and Axel Springer, owner of Politico and Business Insider, also reached licensing deals with the AI ​​startup last year.

Microsoft declined to comment on the lawsuit. OpenAI did not immediately respond to a request for comment.