The Seattle Times and Newsday have filed a lawsuit against OpenAI and Microsoft in federal court, accusing the tech giants of scraping their websites—including paywalled content—to train artificial intelligence systems without permission or compensation.
- Lawsuit targets use of paywalled articles in AI training datasets
- Seattle Times and Newsday seek destruction of infringing AI models
- Similar to ongoing New York Times lawsuit against OpenAI and Microsoft
What happened
The Seattle Times and Newsday filed suit in the Southern District of New York alleging that OpenAI and Microsoft copied and used their journalistic content without authorization. The complaint states that the defendants scraped articles, including those behind paywalls, and incorporated this material into datasets used to train and operate AI products such as ChatGPT, Microsoft Copilot, and the AI search features in Bing.
The newspapers accuse the AI systems of reproducing exact passages and closely paraphrasing their reporting, which undermines traffic and subscription revenue. They argue this unauthorized use of content created significant value for the AI products while circumventing the need for users to visit their websites or pay for access.
Why it matters
This lawsuit highlights ongoing tensions between traditional content creators and AI developers concerning copyright, data usage, and fair compensation. Newspapers invest heavily in producing quality journalism and assert protection over their work against unlicensed exploitation by AI firms.
The case reflects a broader trend of legal challenges aimed at defining the boundaries of fair use for training AI. With similar lawsuits from major publishers like The New York Times, the outcome could influence future AI development practices and industry standards around content sourcing and licensing.
What to watch next
Key developments will include how the court addresses requests for destruction of datasets and AI systems trained on copyrighted material. The response of OpenAI and Microsoft, which have expressed willingness to explore solutions but maintain their use is grounded in publicly available data and fair use, will also be critical.
This lawsuit is part of a growing wave of intellectual property disputes involving AI models worldwide. Legal precedents set here could affect how AI companies negotiate licensing, manage training data, and engage with content providers as AI technologies continue to expand.