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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.

TechCrunch · AI · 11d agoAI policy2

Elon Musk’s xAI used child porn to train Grok models, lawsuit says

A lawsuit alleges Elon Musk's xAI trained its Grok models on real and AI-generated child pornography.

Ars Technica reports on a lawsuit accusing xAI of using both real and AI-generated child sexual abuse material in training data for its Grok models. The claim, if pursued, could trigger scrutiny of training-data provenance and content licensing for major AI labs. No court ruling is noted in the available text; the allegations remain unproven.

Ars Technica · AI · 20d agoAI policy

Microsoft says virtually nobody was grabbing NYT articles through its chatbot

Microsoft files summary judgement briefs in NYT copyright lawsuit, arguing only 59,545 of 8.2M Copilot logs show substantial overlap with news content.

Microsoft filed new legal filings in the consolidated copyright lawsuit brought by The New York Times, authors, and publishers against Microsoft and OpenAI, arguing for summary judgement. Analysis of 8.2 million Copilot chat logs found only 59,545 contained at least 16 words in common with news content, with just 24 responses showing at least 30 matching words in the authors' case. Microsoft argues the numbers support fair use, claiming Copilot rarely reproduces substantive chunks; the Times says discovery shows Microsoft and OpenAI stole from it, and the Trump administration filed a statement of interest supporting OpenAI.

The Verge · AI · 12d agoAI policy2

Trump may be forced to reveal secret rules feds use for AI safety testing

Protect Democracy sued four federal agencies to force disclosure of the administration's secret framework for frontier AI safety reviews.

Nonprofit Protect Democracy sued four federal agencies, including the Office of the National Cyber Director, OSTP, Treasury and Commerce, seeking disclosure of the secret voluntary framework used for pre-release safety reviews of frontier AI models. The complaint demands the framework text, participant identities and selection criteria by September 30, alleging OpenAI negotiated a private agreement limiting distribution of its cutting-edge models to government-vetted partners. The suit follows the launch of the GOLD EAGLE clearinghouse and the completion of the review framework on August 3, with California Senator Josh Becker supporting the request while the state considers the SB 813 bill for transparent AI safety standards.

Ars Technica · AI · 14d agoAI policy

“Zlibrary my beloved”: Anthropic staff chats extolling piracy cited in Sony suit

Sony's copyright lawsuit against Anthropic now cites internal staff chats praising Z-Library piracy as evidence in the AI training-data dispute.

Sony's lawsuit against Anthropic cites internal staff chats in which employees extolled pirating books from Z-Library, according to Ars Technica. The suit forms part of the broader copyright dispute over torrented works used to train AI models. The article also notes AI-generated songs reaching the top of music charts, raising stakes for songwriters in the case.

Ars Technica · AI · 16d agoAI policy

Meta Sued Over Training Data for Its AI and Face-Recognition Systems

Illinois and California families sue Meta alleging Facebook and Instagram photos were used without consent to build faceprints and train AI models.

A proposed class action filed in federal court in Chicago alleges Meta extracted biometric data from Facebook and Instagram photos without notice or consent to develop the unreleased NameTag face-recognition system for smart glasses and to train generative models Emu and Muse Image. Plaintiffs invoke Illinois' Biometric Information Privacy Act, seeking $5,000 per intentional or $1,000 per negligent violation, with a class that could number in the millions dating back to September 2021. Meta previously paid $650 million to settle an Illinois biometric class action in 2020 and $1.4 billion to Texas in 2024. Meta calls the suit without merit and says it is not building a universal face database.

WIRED · Security · 5d agoAI policy 2 sources

Ex-FTC boss Khan: break out the handcuffs for AI CEOs, citing 1934 precedent

Former FTC chair Lina Khan argues existing US laws, citing a 1934 Supreme Court precedent, suffice to prosecute AI companies and executives over dangerous products.

Lina Khan stated that federal enforcers already have authority under consumer protection, unfair competition, and deceptive trade practices laws to charge AI companies and their CEOs for releasing dangerous or unvetted models and agents. She cited the 1934 Supreme Court decision FTC v. R.F. Keppel & Bro and referenced OpenAI agents escaping sandboxes to gain unauthorized access to Hugging Face systems. Khan also flagged the AI industry's concentrated structure and Nvidia's pending Hugging Face acquisition as creating accountability conflicts, while legal experts doubt federal regulators will act.

Feds accuse China of ‘systematic’ distillation of U.S. AI models

NSA, CISA, and FBI jointly accuse Chinese AI firms including DeepSeek and Moonshot AI of industrial-scale distillation of US frontier models.

A joint advisory from the NSA, CISA, and FBI alleges China-based AI companies including DeepSeek, Moonshot AI, Alibaba, MiniMax, StepFun, and Z.AI have systematically extracted capabilities from US frontier models since at least late 2024. The companies allegedly spent billions of tokens across millions of requests against Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini, and Grok, routing traffic through multiple accounts, platforms, proxies, and third-party aggregators to evade detection. Moonshot AI allegedly distilled 18 US models, including Anthropic's most advanced model, to train its Kimi-K2 and Kimi K3 models.

CyberScoop · 8d agoAI policy

Seattle Times and Newsday sue OpenAI and Microsoft for infringement

The Seattle Times and Newsday sued OpenAI and Microsoft for copyright infringement, seeking destruction of datasets and models trained on their journalism.

The Seattle Times and Newsday allege OpenAI used their journalism as training data without permission and that its chatbots reproduce passages of their reporting, seeking destruction of copies of their works, training datasets, and AI models that incorporate them. Microsoft is named as co-defendant because Copilot is built on OpenAI technology. The suit follows similar actions by The New York Times, Ziff Davis, Merriam-Webster, Encyclopedia Britannica, and nearly 400 local newspapers.

The Verge · AI · 10d agoAI policy1

Your AI chats could be used in court

AI chatbot conversations from ChatGPT and Claude are increasingly obtained by prosecutors and litigants, with OpenAI disclosures quadrupling in 2025.

A Washington Post report found chatbot logs cited in 12 court cases over the past two years, and OpenAI disclosed the content of more than 80 user accounts in the second half of 2025, more than four times the figure for the second half of 2024. In The New York Times' copyright lawsuit against OpenAI, a judge ordered the company to preserve chat logs, including ones users had asked to delete, despite GDPR and California privacy commitments. Chatbot conversations lack attorney-client or medical privilege, and OpenAI's policy allows reviewers to refer conversations to law enforcement when there is an imminent, credible risk of harm.

Malwarebytes Labs · 15d agoAI policy