The Seattle Times and Newsday sued OpenAI and Microsoft, alleging that their journalistic content was used to train artificial intelligence systems. The lawsuit argued that AI could “disrupt the journalism industry beyond repair” and destroy organizations that produce content. It alleged that ChatGPT and Copilot were marketed as content creators, but consumed human-written content for commercial purposes and provided copies and derivatives of it. The New York Times also filed a lawsuit in 2023 over similar allegations of copyright infringement, and other publications later joined the proceedings. The Seattle Times lawsuit is drawing attention because Microsoft and OpenAI had funded some of the organization’s journalism projects and scholarships. Microsoft said it was surprised by the lawsuit and was open to seeking a resolution.
Why it matters
The lawsuit is once again raising questions about the conditions under which artificial intelligence companies can access news archives and how the outputs generated from that content should be assessed under copyright law. The outcome could affect not only the dispute between the parties, but also the legal framework that media organizations and AI services using similar content may face. The fact that The Seattle Times had previously received funding from Microsoft and OpenAI for some journalism projects and scholarships is also prompting debate over the limits of cooperation between media organizations and technology companies. Microsoft’s statement that it was open to seeking a resolution leaves open the question of whether the parties will seek an agreement on licensing and content use alongside the legal process.
Background
OpenAI is not a new name in the FikirPilot archive: over the past 90 days, we have published 27 news articles mentioning it; the most recent was dated September 6, 2026.