NY Times sues OpenAI, Microsoft for infringing copyrighted works

The New York Times (NYT.N) sued OpenAI and Microsoft (MSFT.O) on Wednesday, accusing them of using millions of the newspaper's articles without permission to help train chatbots to provide information to readers.

The Times said it is the first major U.S. media organization to sue OpenAI, creator of the popular artificial-intelligence platform ChatGPT, and Microsoft, an OpenAI investor and creator of the AI platform now known as Copilot, over copyright issues associated with its works.

Writers and others have also sued to limit the scraping -- or the automatic collection of data -- by AI services of their online content without compensation.

The newspaper's complaint, filed in Manhattan federal court, accused OpenAI and Microsoft of trying to "free-ride on The Times's massive investment in its journalism" by using it to provide alternative means to deliver information to readers."