New York Times Files Lawsuit Against Microsoft and OpenAI, Alleging Unlawful Use of Copyrighted Content

The New York Times (NYT) has taken legal action against Microsoft and OpenAI, accusing the companies of engaging in the "unlawful use of copyrighted content" for the development and training of their generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) tools.

According to the lawsuit filed through Susman Godfrey LLP and Rothwell, Figg, Ernst & Manbeck, PC, Microsoft's Bing Chat (now Copilot) and OpenAI's ChatGPT allegedly copied and integrated millions of copyrighted works from NYT, including news articles, opinion pieces, investigations, and reviews.

The publication claims that the GenAI tools not only closely imitate its content but also attribute false information to NYT. It further alleges that Microsoft's Bing search index generates responses containing verbatim excerpts and detailed summaries of NYT articles, affecting the relationship with readers and impacting revenue streams.

Despite months of unsuccessful negotiations, the lawsuit was filed in a New York district court after the defendants, Microsoft and OpenAI, reportedly insisted on their conduct being protected as "fair use." The suit disputes this claim, arguing that copying NYT's works to create products that substitute for and compete with NYT is not fair use.

The lawsuit seeks substantial damages, though the exact amount is not specified, holding the defendants responsible for the alleged unlawful copying and use of NYT's valuable works. The legal action comes at a time when both Microsoft and OpenAI have seen significant increases in market capitalization, partially attributed to the deployment of language learning models.

Author: Anushka Taraniya

News Writer, MIT ADT University