Two more US news organizations are taking OpenAI and Microsoft to court over the alleged use of their journalism to train AI models. In a federal lawsuit, The Seattle Times and Newsday argue that with the advent of generative AI, the journalism industry could become 'broken beyond repair.' The complaint describes generative AI as 'a snake eating its own tail' that could 'destroy the very organizations' that produce the content it is 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 newspapers argue.

The case extends a wave of litigation that began in late 2023, when The New York Times sued OpenAI and its partner and investor Microsoft over alleged copyright infringement, and other publishers and authors have since followed. The new lawsuit is notable for more than its plaintiffs: Microsoft and OpenAI have funded some of The Seattle Times' journalism projects and fellowships, a relationship the paper now says does not excuse the alleged copying of its reporting.

A Microsoft spokesperson told GeekWire that the company is 'surprised by the lawsuit' but is 'always happy to sit down and explore solutions to this type of dispute.'

The suit lands as the media industry's approach to AI companies remains deeply split: some outlets have signed licensing deals with model makers, while a growing list of publishers and authors is pressing its claims in court. Publishers behind the latest complaint warn that if AI systems keep consuming reporting without compensation, the institutions that produce original journalism may not survive to feed the next generation of models — leaving AI to draw on a shrinking news ecosystem.

Sources