OpenAI and Microsoft face lawsuits from publishers and studios over using copyrighted works to train AI systems without compensation. Newly unsealed court documents reveal executives internally acknowledged the practice as 'theft of unprecedented proportions,' potentially undermining their fair use defense. The case hinges on whether AI training constitutes fair use or copyright infringement.
Unsealed court documents from The New York Times' lawsuit against OpenAI and Microsoft reveal internal admissions that AI training practices constituted theft and posed existential threats to publishers. Microsoft executives acknowledged bypassing paywalls, mass scraping content, and stripping copyright notices, while data showed their Copilot product reduced Times traffic by up to 93%, directly harming the original content creators' business.