New York Times suing Microsoft, ChatGPT over alleged copyright infringement

The New York Times sued Microsoft and OpenAI on Wednesday, alleging copyright infringement in their popular chatbots powered by artificial intelligence (AI).

The Times alleges the companies impermissibly used millions of the newspaper’s copyrighted articles in training OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Microsoft’s Bing Chat, now known as Copilot.

The lawsuit sets the stage for a major clash in the emerging frontier of legal claims against AI technologies.

“Defendants seek to free-ride on The Times’s massive investment in its journalism by using it to build substitutive products without permission or payment,” the 69-page complaint reads.

The lawsuit does not specify an amount of damages but says it is worth “billions of dollars.” It also calls for the companies to delete any training data containing the Times’s copyrighted materials.

Filed in federal court in the Southern District of New York, the lawsuit comes after an apparent breakdown in talks between The Times and the tech companies.

OpenAI has struck deals with The Associated Press and Axel Springer — a German media company that owns Politico, Insider and other publications — to use their content in OpenAI’s products. 

In its complaint, The Times said it reached out to Microsoft and OpenAI in April to raise intellectual property concerns and possibly reach an agreement.

“These efforts have not produced a resolution,” the complaint states.

The lawsuit names as defendants Microsoft, OpenAI and other corporate entities associated with the latter company.

“We respect the rights of content creators and owners and are committed to working with them to ensure they benefit from AI technology and new revenue models,” an OpenAI spokesperson said in a statement. “Our ongoing conversations with the New York Times have been productive and moving forward constructively, so we are surprised and disappointed with this development. We’re hopeful that we will find a mutually beneficial way to work together, as we are doing with many other publishers.”

Microsoft invested billions of dollars in OpenAI and has incorporated ChatGPT into Microsoft services. The lines between the two companies, however, have been blurred in the aftermath of the tumultuous firing and rehiring of OpenAI co-founder and CEO Sam Altman.

The Hill has reached out to Microsoft for comment.

Updated 4:26 p.m. ET Dec. 27.