Eight newspaper publishers sue Microsoft and OpenAI over copyright infringement

Eight U.S. newspaper publishers filed suit against Microsoft and OpenAI in a New York federal court on Tuesday, claiming the technology companies reuse their articles without permission in generative artificial intelligence products and incorrectly attribute inaccurate information to them.

The group of eight newspaper publishers takes issue with ChatGPT and Microsoft's Copilot assistant — available in the Windows operating system, the Bing search engine, and other products the software maker produces. ChatGPT and Copilot have been "purloining millions of the publishers' copyrighted articles without permission and without payment," according to the complaint, which had been filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.

The newspaper publishers in the lawsuit operate the New York Daily News, the Chicago Tribune, the Orlando Sentinel, the Sun Sentinel in Florida, The Mercury News in California, The Denver Post, The Orange County Register in California and the Pioneer Press of Minnesota. All fall under the ownership of hedge fund Alden Global Capital.

"We take great care in our products and design process to support news organizations," an OpenAI spokesperson said in a statement. "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. Along with our news partners, we see immense potential for AI tools like ChatGPT to deepen publishers' relationships with readers and enhance the news experience."

Microsoft declined to comment.

The newspaper publishers said in the lawsuit that OpenAI has drawn on data sets