US Newspapers Take OpenAI and Microsoft to Court Over AI and Copyright

Two regional US newspapers, The Seattle Times and Newsday, have filed a new lawsuit against OpenAI and Microsoft, arguing that generative AI is unlawfully exploiting their journalism and undermining their business.

According to the complaint, the papers’ articles—normally licensed for a fee through wire services and syndication deals—were used without permission to train large language models such as ChatGPT. The publishers say AI‑generated summaries and rewrites now act as a “free substitute” for their work, eroding subscriptions and advertising revenue. In their view, this is not just a technology dispute but a fight over the survival of local news organizations.

OpenAI and Microsoft, for their part, have consistently argued in similar cases that training on publicly available text is protected under US fair‑use doctrine. This lawsuit will be another crucial test of where courts draw the line between innovation and copyright protection. Depending on the outcome, it could reshape licensing talks between AI companies and publishers worldwide, and even influence how news outlets choose to make their stories available online.