Seattle Times and Newsday Join Lawsuit Against OpenAI and Microsoft

The list of news organizations challenging OpenAI and Microsoft's practices in court keeps growing. According to TechCrunch, the Seattle Times and Newsday are the latest publications to file complaints against the two companies, accusing them of using journalistic content without authorization to develop their artificial intelligence systems.

Allegations echo earlier lawsuits

Both publications claim their material was used without consent to train models such as ChatGPT, with no financial compensation provided to authors or publishers. The central argument in these lawsuits is that large language models were built in part on extensive journalistic archives obtained by scraping the internet without the explicit consent of copyright holders.

This type of accusation is not new. Since ChatGPT's launch, several major media organizations, including the New York Times, have filed similar legal actions against OpenAI and Microsoft, arguing that the unauthorized use of their articles constitutes a serious violation of intellectual property rights.

A growing legal challenge for the AI industry

The lawsuits filed by the Seattle Times and Newsday add to an already tense legal landscape for companies developing generative artificial intelligence technologies. U.S. courts are currently reviewing multiple similar cases, and the rulings that emerge could set important precedents for how tech companies are allowed to use copyrighted content.

For OpenAI and Microsoft, these lawsuits add further pressure at a time when both companies are trying to strengthen partnerships with media outlets, sometimes offering licensing deals in exchange for payment. Even so, an increasing number of organizations are choosing to pursue legal action instead, arguing that direct negotiations fail to provide adequate compensation.

The outcome of these disputes could significantly shape the future of how AI companies build their training datasets, particularly when it comes to content sourced from legally protected journalistic outlets.