NY Times lawsuit holds OpenAI and Microsoft 'responsible for the billions of dollars they owe for the unlawful copying and use of The Times's uniquely valuable works'
A lawsuit filed in the Manhattan federal court last week by the New York Times claims that the defendants—Microsoft and OpenAI—have used millions of its articles to train and create its large language models (LLMs) and other products. The Times is seeking damages in realms of billions of dollars, though it doesn't give a specific number.
But yeah, it's going to be looking for a pretty large payout if it does win.
«The law does not permit the kind of systematic and competitive infringement that Defendants have committed,» reads the official complaint (pdf warning). «This action seeks to hold them responsible for the billions of dollars in statutory and actual damages that they owe for the unlawful copying and use of The Times's uniquely valuable works.»
The lawsuit states that the New York Times had been in negotiations with the defendants «for months» and that it was looking to reach an agreement «in accordance with its history of working productively with large technology platforms to permit the use of its content in new digital products.» The idea put forward in the court document is that its goal was both to get fair value out of its contribution to the training, because of the weighting The Times' content was given during training, and to «facilitate the continuation of a healthy news ecosystem, and help develop GenAI technology in a responsible way that benefits society and supports a well-informed public.»
For its part, a statement from an OpenAI spokesperson, Lindsey Held, is quoted by The New York Times article itself as saying the company thought that negotiations had been constructive and was «surprised and disappointed» by the lawsuit.
«We're hopeful that we will find a mutually beneficial way to work
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