Unsealed NYT filings: OpenAI, Microsoft execs called AI training 'theft'
Newly unsealed court filings in The New York Times' lawsuit against OpenAI and Microsoft reveal internal communications where executives described AI training on copyrighted content as 'theft' and an 'existential threat' to publishers. Microsoft's Director of Applied Science, Brent Hecht, reportedly called scraping 'the largest theft of labor in human history' and warned of a 'doom loop' harming the web. The companies lost a bid to keep these documents sealed.
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Financial Times : NYT court filing: ChatGPT's head wrote that publishers face an “existential threat” and a Microsoft executive called AI training “an astonishing theft” — Lawyers say AI co-founder Greg Brockman was ‘motivated by the gazillions’ he hoped to gain from models trained on copyrighted content
TechCrunch AIRebecca Bellan
Newly unsealed court filings show Microsoft privately called OpenAI's data practices "theft" while both companies scraped paywalled Times content, built datasets from it, and warned internally it would gut publishers.
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The Verge AITerrence O’Brien
Recently unsealed court documents in the New York Times ' case against OpenAI and Microsoft are pretty damning. The companies' own documentation warned that it was starting a "doom loop" that would damage the web, characterized its scraping of data to train its models as the "largest theft of labor in human history," and that it made a "complete mockery of the idea of fair use." Many of the most eye-catching quotes from the document come from Microsoft's Director of Applied Science, Brent Hecht. Though, the company has tried to distance itself from Hecht's assertions. Microsoft spokesperson Alex Haurek told The Verge that "These comments ref … Read the full story at The Verge.
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