A federal judge has allowed The New York Times and several other newspapers to continue their copyright lawsuit against OpenAI and Microsoft, challenging the use of their articles to train AI chatbots. On Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Sidney Stein of New York dismissed certain claims made by the media organizations but allowed most of the case to proceed, potentially leading to a jury trial.
“We appreciate Judge Stein’s careful consideration of these issues,” said Ian Crosby, an attorney for The New York Times. “As the ruling indicates, all of our copyright claims will continue against Microsoft and OpenAI for their widespread theft of millions of The Times’s works, and we look forward to pursuing them further.”
The ruling was also welcomed by Frank Pine, executive editor of MediaNews Group and Tribune Publishing, which own newspapers involved in a consolidated lawsuit in Manhattan. “The claims the court dismissed do not change the core of our case, which is that these companies have taken our work without permission and violated our copyright in a way that harms our business,” said Frank Pine, executive editor of MediaNews Group and Tribune Publishing, in a statement.
Judge Stein did not provide an explanation for his ruling, stating that the reasons would be given “expeditiously.”
OpenAI responded by welcoming the dismissal of several claims and stated, “We look forward to demonstrating that we build our AI models using publicly available data, in accordance with fair use, and in a way that fosters innovation.”
Microsoft declined to comment.
The New York Times has argued that OpenAI and its partner Microsoft have jeopardized its business by essentially taking billions of dollars’ worth of journalistic content, sometimes reproducing Times articles verbatim when users seek information from AI systems like OpenAI’s ChatGPT.