Seattle Times and Newsday Take Legal Action Against OpenAI and Microsoft for Copyright Violation

The Seattle Times and Newsday have joined the growing list of plaintiffs taking legal action against OpenAI, claiming copyright infringement. They assert that the company utilized their journalism as training data for its AI models without authorization and frequently reproduces excerpts from their articles in response to user inquiries. This mirrors similar lawsuits from other notable entities like The New York Times, Ziff Davis, Merriam-Webster, and Encyclopedia Britannica against OpenAI.

In this case, Microsoft has also been named as a defendant, given that Copilot relies on OpenAI’s technology. These publishers are part of a larger group of nearly 400 local newspapers that recently filed a lawsuit against both companies, arguing that the chatbots diminish the necessity for users to visit their websites for news and information, ultimately impacting their subscription revenue.

As part of their legal action, The Seattle Times and Newsday are demanding the destruction of any copies of their works held by the companies, along with any training datasets and AI models that include their content. OpenAI and Microsoft have yet to respond to requests for comment.