Microsoft: Only ~60K of 8.2M Copilot logs matched 16+ words of news content
In new court filings, Microsoft argues that its Copilot chatbot rarely reproduces substantial text from news articles, citing an analysis of 8.2 million chat logs provided during discovery. The analysis, conducted by an expert hired by news publishers, found that only about 60,000 logs contained at least 16 words matching news content, less than 1 percent of the total. Microsoft claims the logs were selected because they were most likely to contain publishers' works, supporting its defense against copyright claims from The New York Times and book authors.
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The Verge AILauren Feiner
Microsoft's Copilot rarely reproduces even full sentences from news articles and books, let alone substantive chunks that could substitute for the original, the company says in new legal filings as it fights copyright claims from publishers including The New York Times and book authors . As part of the lawsuit's discovery, Microsoft provided 8.2 million Copilot chat logs to an expert hired by news publishers. The logs, it claims, were specifically chosen "because they hit on keywords implicating use of News Plaintiffs' websites, and therefore the most likely to contain News Plaintiffs' works." It says the resulting analysis shows that 59,545 … Read the full story at The Verge.

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Lauren Feiner / The Verge : Microsoft court filings: an expert hired by publishers found that only ~60K of 8.2M Copilot chat logs contained at least 16 words in common with news content — Fewer than 1 percent of more than 8 million chat logs regurgitated at least 16 words. … Microsoft's Copilot rarely reproduces …
