Key facts
- Microsoft executive Brent Hecht described AI scraping of news content as "astonishing theft of unprecedented proportions."
- OpenAI's head of ChatGPT, Nick Turley, warned that publishers face an "existential threat" from AI products.
- Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella testified that "anything that is paywalled should be licensed by anyone who wants to use it."
- News organizations argue these internal statements undermine Microsoft and OpenAI's fair use defense in a copyright lawsuit.
- OpenAI President Greg Brockman responded positively to a "hack" to bypass The New York Times' paywall.
- Microsoft stated Brent Hecht's comments reflect an individual perspective and not the company's views.
Internal documents unsealed in a copyright lawsuit reveal that Microsoft and OpenAI executives were aware that their AI models were trained on copyrighted news content and posed a significant threat to the news industry. Microsoft Director of Applied Science Brent Hecht described the scraping of news for AI training as "astonishing theft of unprecedented proportions." Over at OpenAI, ChatGPT head Nick Turley warned in an internal message that publishers would face an "existential threat" from commercial products trained on news content that could substitute for news providers.
Data from Microsoft indicates that AI chatbots led to significant drops in click-through rates for some news plaintiffs, ranging from 83–93 percent, and for others, between 51–94 percent. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella acknowledged under oath that AI companies should not violate news sites' terms of use by circumventing paywalls and that chatbots substitute for news platforms by providing information directly, rather than directing users to the original source.
News organizations involved in the lawsuit argue that these internal statements and the substitutive nature of chatbots, which can reproduce article excerpts verbatim, undermine Microsoft and OpenAI's fair use defense. They contend that the future of journalism and responsible AI development depends on preserving incentives for human creators. A Microsoft spokesperson defended the company's AI products as a transformative fair use and stated that Hecht's comments represented an individual perspective.