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

The Seattle Times and Newsday have filed a lawsuit against OpenAI and Microsoft, alleging that their journalism was used to train artificial intelligence systems without authorisation.

The lawsuit, filed in court, argues that the rise of generative AI could threaten the sustainability of news organisations by enabling AI products to reproduce and generate content based on human-created reporting.

The publishers argued that AI systems such as ChatGPT and Microsoft Copilot rely on large amounts of human-authored material during training. The complaint described these products as consuming journalism and producing derivative outputs that compete with the organisations that created the original work.

The legal action adds Seattle Times and Newsday to a growing group of publishers challenging how AI companies obtain and use copyrighted material. The dispute follows earlier litigation, including a 2023 lawsuit filed by The New York Times against OpenAI and Microsoft over similar copyright concerns.

The Seattle Times case has drawn additional attention because Microsoft and OpenAI have previously supported some of the publication’s journalism initiatives and fellowship programs.

Microsoft said it was surprised by the lawsuit but indicated it was open to discussions to resolve disputes involving AI and content creators, according to GeekWire.

The lawsuit is part of a broader debate between AI companies and content publishers over the use of copyrighted material in training datasets and the future relationship between artificial intelligence systems and journalism.