Seattle Times and Newsday Sue OpenAI and Microsoft Over Training Data
The Seattle Times and Newsday filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against OpenAI and Microsoft, alleging the companies used their journalism to train AI models without permission and that the AI often reproduces passages from their reporting. The lawsuit warns that generative AI could leave the journalism industry 'broken beyond repair' and describes the technology as 'a snake eating its own tail.' The publishers join a growing list of outlets, including The New York Times and nearly 400 local newspapers, that have sued the two companies.
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TechCrunch AIAnthony Ha
# Seattle Times and Newsday are the latest publications to sue OpenAI and Microsoft Two more news organizations are suing OpenAI and Microsoft over the supposed use of their journalism to train AI. A lawsuit filed by The Seattle Times and Newsday argued that with the advent of AI, the journalism industry could become “broken beyond repair.” The lawsuit described generative AI as “a snake eating its own tail” that could “destroy the very organizations” that produce the content it’s trained on. “AI products like ChatGPT and CoPilot are touted as producers of content, but in fact they are rapacious consumers, devouring human-authored content and delivering back to the world copies and derivative imitations of that same original content they consumed to achieve their commercial objectives,” the lawsuit said. Back in 2023, The New York Times sued OpenAI and its partner/investor Microsoft over alleged copyright infringement; other publications have followed suit as the case continued. The Se
The Verge AITerrence O’Brien
The OpenAI logo is displayed on a smartphone screen placed on a reflective surface on which the company's logo is projected in Creteil, France, on September 4, 2026, as OpenAI began rolling out GPT-6 Astra, its most advanced model to date. (Photo by Samuel Boivin/NurPhoto via Getty Images) | NurPhoto via Getty Images The Seattle Times and Newsday are 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 by The New York Times , Ziff Davis , Merriam-Webster, and Encyclopedia Britannica against OpenAI. The Seattle Times and Newsday also named Microsoft as a defendant in the suit, since Copilot is built on OpenAI's technology. The publishers join a list of nearly 400 local newspapers that recently sued the two … Read the full story at The V
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