The New York Daily News, Chicago Tribune, Orlando Sentinel, Sun-Sentinel, Mercury News, Denver Post, Orange County Register and St. Paul Pioneer Press argue the companies have used “millions” of articles without permission to “fuel the commercialization” of their generative AI products, like OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Microsoft’s Copilot.
“Microsoft and OpenAI simply take the work product of reporters, journalists, editorial writers, editors and others who contribute to the work of local newspapers—all without any regard for the efforts, much less the legal rights, of those who create and publish the news on which local communities rely,” the lawsuit alleges.
Beyond initially scraping their articles to train the AI models, the newspapers also contend Microsoft and OpenAI’s generative AI systems “offer their users content that is identical to, or a slightly masked version of, the newspapers’ content.”
The AI models are also subject to hallucinations that have incorrectly attributed inaccurate reporting to the newspapers, which they argue are “actively tarnishing the newspapers’ reputations and spreading dangerous disinformation.”
While the lawsuit targets OpenAI and Microsoft over their individual AI models, it also notes the close relationship between the AI startup and the tech giant. Microsoft has invested billions of dollars in OpenAI, drawing scrutiny from U.S. and U.K. regulators.
Read more in a full report at TheHill.com.
