The New York Times has filed a lawsuit against OpenAI and Microsoft for alleged copyright infringement, marking a significant development in the ongoing legal disputes surrounding the unauthorized use of published content for training artificial intelligence (AI) systems.

This legal action makes The Times the first major American media organization to take legal measures against companies, including the creators of popular AI platforms like ChatGPT, over concerns related to copyright issues associated with its published works. The lawsuit, filed in Federal District Court in Manhattan, asserts that millions of articles published by The Times were utilized to train automated chatbots, which are now considered competitors as sources of information.

While the lawsuit does not specify an exact monetary demand, it claims that the defendants should be held accountable for “billions of dollars in statutory and actual damages” due to the alleged “unlawful copying and use” of The Times’s content. Additionally, it calls for the companies to destroy any chatbot models and training data incorporating copyrighted material from The Times.

The legal complaint reveals that The Times had initiated discussions with Microsoft and OpenAI in April to express concerns about the use of its intellectual property. The objective was to explore an amicable resolution, potentially involving a commercial agreement and the implementation of “technological guardrails” around generative AI products. However, the lawsuit indicates that these talks failed to yield a satisfactory resolution.