The Seattle TimesandNewsdayare just the latest plaintiffs to take OpenAI to court,alleging copyright infringement. The two outlets say the company used their journalism as training data for its AI models without permission and often reproduces passages from their reporting in response to user queries. This is similar to lawsuits filed byThe New York Times,Ziff Davis,Merriam-Webster, and Encyclopedia Britannicaagainst OpenAI.
The Seattle TimesandNewsdayalso named Microsoft as a defendant in the suit, since Copilot is built on OpenAI’s technology. The publishers join a list ofnearly 400 local newspapersthat recently sued the two companies, saying that because the chatbots reduce the need to visit their sites for reporting and answers, they cost them valuable subscription revenue.
As part of the suit,The Seattle TimesandNewsdayare seeking the destruction of any copies of their works the companies are holding, as well as training datasets and AI models that incorporate them. OpenAI and Microsoft did not immediately respond to a request for comment.