Seattle Times and Newsday sue OpenAI and Microsoft
The two newsrooms say their reporting was used to train AI models without permission, and that the systems echo passages of it back to users.
Symbolic image: in a courthouse filing room, a person seen from behind pushes a thick complaint across the counter while a scanner sweeps a stack of newspaper pages.
The Seattle Times and Newsday have taken OpenAI and Microsoft to federal court, arguing that their published journalism was pulled into AI training without a license.
At a glance
- Plaintiffs are The Seattle Times and Newsday; defendants are OpenAI and Microsoft.
- The case was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.
- The claim: unlicensed training, plus reproduction of passages from their articles in chatbot answers.
- The New York Times filed its own suit in December 2023, and that case is still active.
- Microsoft told GeekWire it was surprised but open to talks; OpenAI has issued no comment.
Two more newspapers have joined the copyright fight over AI training data. The Seattle Times and Newsday filed suit against OpenAI and Microsoft in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, saying their journalism was used to build the companies’ models without a license — and that the resulting systems hand passages of that reporting back to users who ask.
The argument the complaint makes
The filing does not treat this as a narrow copying dispute. It calls generative AI systems “rapacious consumers” of human-authored work that turn out copies and derivative imitations, and warns that the business of reporting could end up broken beyond repair. That framing matters: it puts the economics of local newsrooms, not just individual articles, at the center of the case.
Part of a longer queue
The suit lands in a docket that has been filling since December 2023, when the New York Times sued the same two companies. That case remains unresolved, and its eventual outcome will shape how much leverage later plaintiffs have. Publishers are increasingly choosing litigation over the licensing deals some of their peers signed.
Former partners on opposite sides
There is an awkward history here. Both Microsoft and OpenAI have previously helped fund journalism projects and fellowships at the Seattle Times. A Microsoft spokesperson told GeekWire the company was surprised by the filing but would be glad to sit down and look for solutions.
What is not yet known
The reporting available does not put a number on the damages sought, and no reliable docket number is confirmed. OpenAI has not been quoted responding to the complaint. Whether the plaintiffs are pressing claims beyond copyright is likewise not established by the coverage so far.
FAQ
Who is suing OpenAI and Microsoft?
Two U.S. newspapers: The Seattle Times and Newsday.
What exactly do they allege?
Copyright infringement — that their articles were used for model training without permission and that the models output passages from that reporting.
How does this relate to the New York Times case?
It follows the same template. The New York Times sued in December 2023, and that case has not been decided.
