In a recent turn of events, The New York Times filed a lawsuit against tech giants Microsoft and OpenAI, accusing them of copyright infringement and unauthorized use of the newspaper’s content in the development of artificial intelligence (AI) services. This legal action sheds light on the complex relationship between media outlets and the rapidly evolving landscape of AI, which has the potential to reshape the news industry.

The lawsuit, filed in the Southern District of New York, alleges that both Microsoft and OpenAI utilized millions of copyrighted articles from The New York Times to train their AI models, including OpenAI’s popular ChatGPT. The newspaper contends that this unauthorized use has resulted in significant statutory and actual damages, amounting to billions of dollars.

OpenAI, known for its generative AI chatbot ChatGPT, has been under scrutiny for its practice of scraping text from the web to train its models. While the startup has faced legal challenges from individual authors, this marks the first major confrontation with a prominent media organization.

The lawsuit claims that OpenAI’s generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) relies on large-language models (LLMs) created by copying and using extensive portions of The New York Times’ copyrighted content. The newspaper asserts that Microsoft, as OpenAI’s major backer, has also played a role in this alleged copyright infringement.

The New York Times’ legal action highlights the broader issue of AI developers using copyrighted materials without proper authorization. The newspaper, in its complaint, contends that Microsoft copied its articles verbatim for its Bing search engine, contributing to the tech giant’s increased market capitalization since the debut of ChatGPT in November 2022.

OpenAI has faced similar challenges from other content producers, including well-known figures like comedian Sarah Silverman, author George R.R. Martin, and Pulitzer-winning author Michael Chabon. These cases, still in their early stages, could take years to resolve.

Interestingly, OpenAI has been actively seeking licensing deals with publishers, akin to approaches taken by tech giants Google and Meta Platforms (formerly Facebook). The startup signed an agreement with the Associated Press in July and entered into a three-year deal with Axel Springer in December.

In response to the lawsuit, OpenAI expressed surprise and disappointment, emphasizing its commitment to respecting the rights of content creators. Microsoft, on the other hand, declined to comment on the matter.

This legal dispute underscores the growing tension between media organizations and AI developers over the use of copyrighted content. As the AI landscape continues to evolve, it raises critical questions about the ethical and legal boundaries in harnessing AI capabilities without infringing on intellectual property rights. The outcome of this case could have significant implications for the future development and deployment of AI technologies that rely on training data from copyrighted sources.