New York Times alleges Microsoft, OpenAI knew using news content was theft
The New York Times has alleged in unsealed court documents that OpenAI and Microsoft engaged in massive theft by using millions of news articles to train AI models. A Microsoft executive reportedly described the practice as an 'astonishing theft of unprecedented proportions,' though Microsoft has distanced itself from these comments.
Why it matters
This case is a landmark legal battle that will define the future of copyright law and fair use in the era of generative artificial intelligence.
OpenAI committed "an astonishing theft of unprecedented proportions" when it used millions of news articles to train its artificial intelligence models, the New York Times alleged in a court document unsealed on Thursday (September 17, 2026).
The San Francisco-based artificial intelligence lab scraped content from more than 10 million articles, nearly a third of which came from the New York Times alone.
The document claims Microsoft's Director of Applied Science, Brent Hect, called it "an astonishing theft of unprecedented proportions" and possibly the "largest theft of labor in human history."
Mr. Hect also allegedly warned that OpenAI might have engaged in an "accidental cover up" in its attempts to identify content in its systems that came from the New York Times and the lawsuit's other plaintiffs.
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