Two additional news organizations—The Seattle Times and Newsday—have filed lawsuits against OpenAI and Microsoft, alleging unauthorized use of their journalism to train artificial intelligence models.
The legal action, filed in federal court, argues that the rise of generative AI could leave the journalism industry "broken beyond repair." The complaint likens AI to "a snake eating its own tail," warning that it could "destroy the very organizations" that produce the content on which these systems are trained.
"AI products like ChatGPT and CoPilot are touted as producers of content, but in fact they are rapacious consumers," the lawsuit states. "They devour human-authored content and deliver back to the world copies and derivative imitations of that same original content they consumed to achieve their commercial objectives."
The Seattle Times and Newsday are the latest in a series of publishers to take legal action against OpenAI and Microsoft. In late 2023, The New York Times filed a similar lawsuit over alleged copyright infringement, and other outlets have since joined the fray. What makes this case particularly notable is that Microsoft and OpenAI have previously funded journalism projects and fellowships at The Seattle Times, adding a layer of irony to the dispute.
A Microsoft spokesperson told GeekWire that the company was "surprised by the lawsuit," but expressed willingness to engage in dialogue, saying they are "always happy to sit down and explore solutions to this type of dispute."
As of 2026, this case adds to the growing legal and ethical debate over AI's reliance on copyrighted material, with publishers seeking clearer compensation frameworks and acknowledgment of original content in AI training datasets.
via TechCrunch AI