Eight U.S. newspapers sue ChatGPT-maker OpenAI and Microsoft for copyright infringement

Advertisement

Advertise with us

NEW YORK (AP) — A group of eight U.S. newspapers is suing ChatGPT-maker OpenAI and Microsoft, alleging that the technology companies have been “purloining millions” of copyrighted news articles without permission or payment to train their artificial intelligence chatbots.

Read this article for free:


or

Already have an account? Log in here »

To continue reading, please subscribe:

Subscribe and receive a limited-edition Free Press branded hat or tote.

Digital Subscription

One year of digital access for only $205*

  • Enjoy unlimited reading on winnipegfreepress.com
  • Read the E-Edition, our digital replica newspaper
  • Access News Break, our award-winning app
  • Play interactive puzzles

*First annual payment billed as $205.00 + GST for one year. This annual subscription will automatically renew at $233.00 + GST every 52 weeks (10% off the regular annual price of $259.35). Offer available to new and qualified returning subscribers only. Cancel any time.

To continue reading, please subscribe:

Add Free Press access to your Brandon Sun subscription for only an additional

$1 for the first 4 weeks*

  • Enjoy unlimited reading on winnipegfreepress.com
  • Read the E-Edition, our digital replica newspaper
  • Access News Break, our award-winning app
  • Play interactive puzzles
Start now

*Your next Brandon Sun subscription payment will increase by $1.00 and you will be charged $17.95 plus GST for four weeks. After four weeks, your payment will increase to $24.95 plus GST every four weeks.

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 30/04/2024 (851 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

NEW YORK (AP) — A group of eight U.S. newspapers is suing ChatGPT-maker OpenAI and Microsoft, alleging that the technology companies have been “purloining millions” of copyrighted news articles without permission or payment to train their artificial intelligence chatbots.

The New York Daily News, Chicago Tribune, Denver Post and other papers filed the lawsuit Tuesday in a New York federal court.

“We’ve spent billions of dollars gathering information and reporting news at our publications, and we can’t allow OpenAI and Microsoft to expand the Big Tech playbook of stealing our work to build their own businesses at our expense,” said a written statement from Frank Pine, executive editor for the MediaNews Group and Tribune Publishing.

FILE - OpenAI's ChatGPT app is displayed on an iPhone in New York, May 18, 2023. With companies deploying artificial intelligence to every corner of society, state lawmakers are playing catch-up with the first major proposals to reign in AI's penchant for discrimination — but those bills face blistering headwinds from every direction. (AP Photo/Richard Drew, File)
FILE - OpenAI's ChatGPT app is displayed on an iPhone in New York, May 18, 2023. With companies deploying artificial intelligence to every corner of society, state lawmakers are playing catch-up with the first major proposals to reign in AI's penchant for discrimination — but those bills face blistering headwinds from every direction. (AP Photo/Richard Drew, File)

The other newspapers that are part of the lawsuit are MediaNews Group’s Mercury News, Denver Post, Orange County Register and St. Paul Pioneer-Press, and Tribune Publishing’s Orlando Sentinel and South Florida Sun Sentinel. All of the newspapers are owned by Alden Global Capital.

Microsoft declined to comment Tuesday. OpenAI said in a statement that it takes care to support news organizations.

“While we were not previously aware of Alden Global Capital’s concerns, we are actively engaged in constructive partnerships and conversations with many news organizations around the world to explore opportunities, discuss any concerns, and provide solutions,” it said.

The lawsuit is the latest against OpenAI and Microsoft to land at Manhattan’s federal court, where the companies are already battling a series of other copyright lawsuits from the New York Times, other media outlets and bestselling authors such as John Grisham, Jodi Picoult and George R.R. Martin. The companies also face another set of lawsuits in San Francisco’s federal court.

Tech companies have argued that taking troves of publicly accessible internet content to train their AI systems is protected by the “fair use” doctrine of American copyright law. In some cases, they have averted potential legal challenges by paying organizations for that content.

The Associated Press last year agreed to a partnership with OpenAI in which the technology company would pay an undisclosed fee to license AP’s archive of news stories. OpenAI has also made licensing deals with other media companies including news publishing giants Axel Springer in Germany and Prisa Media in Spain, France’s Le Monde newspaper and, most recently, the London-based Financial Times.

Report Error Submit a Tip

More Stories

Letters, Aug. 29

6 minute read 2:01 AM CDT

Lake fever

Re: Lake Ontario ‘then, now and always’ (Aug. 28)

Some people are stupid and uninformed and uneducated about history, as well as lacking in empathy and respect for other cultures, especially Indigenous cultures and their rich histories.

If all of the above are true for some of the American public and for Donald Trump — then you go ahead and call it Lake America!

Of frogs, roses, kings and a Great Lake

Editorial 4 minute read Preview

Of frogs, roses, kings and a Great Lake

Editorial 4 minute read 2:01 AM CDT

A rose by any other name would smell as sweet, as the saying goes. Basically, if you change something’s name, you don’t actually change the nature of the thing.

That being said, if even 15 years ago an American president had called an entire news conference to announce he was renaming one of the Great Lakes by writing on a map with a red pen and issuing an executive order purporting to rename Lake Ontario as “Lake America,” all and sundry would question his mental health.

Maybe, after witnessing so much from Donald Trump, we’ve all just been hardened off and the foolish is now expected daily. Perhaps it’s the political equivalent of the fable of the boiling frog.

As the fable goes, drop a frog into a pot of boiling water and it will jump right out. But put the frog in room temperature water and bring the pot to a boil, the frog will stay until its death. (It’s unlikely the frog would actually wait.)

Read
2:01 AM CDT

Doctor pays $500K to revamp courtyard at care home where he works

By Zoe Pierce 4 minute read Preview

Doctor pays $500K to revamp courtyard at care home where he works

By Zoe Pierce 4 minute read Thursday, Aug. 27, 2026

Fifty years after Dr. Pravinsagar Mehta began caring for residents at Actionmarguerite, a courtyard he had long watched deteriorate is getting a new life after he and his wife committed $500,000 to its redevelopment and long-term maintenance.

Read
Thursday, Aug. 27, 2026

Kusama embraced dots which crowded her vision

Jen Zoratti 4 minute read Preview

Kusama embraced dots which crowded her vision

Jen Zoratti 4 minute read 2:00 AM CDT

In 2012, just as I was leaving the Tate Modern in London, I noticed an exhibition that I had nearly missed: The Obliteration Room by Yayoi Kusama, the famed Japanese artist with the bright-red bob known for her use of repetition and polka dots.

I had read about this exhibition but had no idea it was on while I was in the U.K. Conceived as an interactive exhibition for children and first put up at the Queensland Art Gallery in 2002, it begins as a monochromatic white room, furnished with all-white furniture and objects that visitors are then encouraged to cover with the multi-coloured dot stickers they are given on entry.

The idea is that, over weeks, the pristine room becomes “obliterated” by dots of colour.

Obviously, I beelined for it. I was handed my sheet of stickers, all different sizes of circles, and sent to add to a work that hundreds of people had already contributed to.

Read
2:00 AM CDT

Former care home nurse fined $8,000 for ‘disturbing in the extreme’ 2025 incident

Morgan Modjeski 3 minute read Preview

Former care home nurse fined $8,000 for ‘disturbing in the extreme’ 2025 incident

Morgan Modjeski 3 minute read Thursday, Aug. 27, 2026

A former nurse has been fined $8,000 and is facing numerous restrictions after making a mistake “no registered nurse should have made” by inserting 10 centimetres of gauze into a patient’s anus instead of dressing a nearby wound.

Read
Thursday, Aug. 27, 2026

Impact of Winnipeg hoops giant Laping went well beyond coaching

Joshua Frey-Sam 7 minute read Preview

Impact of Winnipeg hoops giant Laping went well beyond coaching

Joshua Frey-Sam 7 minute read Yesterday at 5:37 PM CDT

In life, few connected with others like Jeff Laping.

A legendary high school basketball coach and influential educator for more than 30 years, he was a figurative giant in Winnipeg’s hoops community with an innate ability to resonate with anyone he met.

Laping was a best friend to many, a confidant to others, and a mentor to even more.

He died on Monday, one week after suffering from cardiac arrest.

Read
Yesterday at 5:37 PM CDT