Seattle Times and Newsday are the latest publications to sue OpenAI and Microsoft
The Seattle Times and Newsday sued OpenAI and Microsoft over alleged unlicensed use of their journalism for AI training, joining a wave of publisher lawsuits.
The Seattle Times and Newsday filed a copyright lawsuit against OpenAI and Microsoft, arguing generative AI products like ChatGPT and Copilot are 'rapacious consumers' of human-authored journalism that return derivative imitations. The suit follows The New York Times' 2023 case against the companies and other publisher lawsuits. A Microsoft spokesperson said the company was surprised but always happy to explore solutions; the outlets have received Microsoft funding for journalism projects and fellowships.
- New copyright suit filed by Seattle Times and Newsday against OpenAI and Microsoft
- Follows The New York Times' 2023 lawsuit and subsequent publisher suits
- Lawsuit claims generative AI could break journalism 'beyond repair'
- Microsoft says it is surprised but open to exploring solutions
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Two more news organizations are suing OpenAI and Microsoft over the supposed use of their journalism to train AI.
A lawsuit filed by The Seattle Times and Newsday argued that with the advent of AI, the journalism industry could become “broken beyond repair.” The lawsuit described generative AI as “a snake eating its own tail” that could “destroy the very organizations” that produce the content it’s trained on.
“AI products like ChatGPT and CoPilot are touted as producers of content, but in fact they are rapacious consumers, devouring human-authored content and delivering back to the world copies and derivative imitations of that same original content they consumed to achieve their commercial objectives,” the lawsuit said.
Back in 2023, The New York Times sued OpenAI and its partner/investor Microsoft over alleged copyright infringement. Other publications have followed suit as the case continued. The Seattle Times’ lawsuit is particularly notable because Microsoft and OpenAI have funded some of the organization’s journalism projects and fellowships.
A Microsoft spokesperson told GeekWire that the company is “surprised by the lawsuit” but is “always happy to sit down and explore solutions to this type of dispute.”
Text extracted automatically; images, tables and formatting may be missing. Original: https://techcrunch.com/2026/09/05/seattle-times-and-newsday-are-the-latest-publications-to-sue-openai-and-microsoft/