Seattle Times and Newsday Sue OpenAI and Microsoft Over AI Training
The suit carries the copyright fight over AI training into local news, and it lands just after the US Department of Justice argued in the New York Times case that AI training is fair use.
Reporting from 1 source: GIGAZINE.
The Seattle Times and Newsday filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against OpenAI and Microsoft on September 4, 2026, in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York. The papers allege the companies scraped their articles, including paywalled content, to train ChatGPT, Microsoft Copilot, and Bing, and that the AI tools now reproduce or closely mimic their reporting while reducing readers' need to visit or subscribe.
The complaint names both the training data and the products built on it. OpenAI and Microsoft collected articles from the internet, including paywalled pieces, to train ChatGPT, Microsoft Copilot, and Bing, and the models can reproduce or closely resemble Seattle Times and Newsday reporting, according to the filing. The papers argue direct AI answers cut into web traffic and subscriptions.
Seattle Times president and CEO Alan Fisco told employees the paper spends millions of dollars a year producing content that AI companies use without consent or compensation. OpenAI said its models train on publicly available data under fair use principles. Microsoft said it was surprised by the suit but recognized the importance of local journalism and was open to talks.
The case follows the New York Times lawsuit against the same companies from 2023, and it comes as the US Department of Justice has filed a brief arguing AI training is fair use.
Synthesized by Yomimono from the 1 cited source below, including Japanese-language reporting where cited, then editorially reviewed before publishing.
Sources
- GIGAZINE 報道機関が著作権侵害でOpenAIとMicrosoftを提訴