For years, Microsoft and OpenAI have fought to keep certain information out of the public eye in their fight with news organizations that have accused the AI firms of teaming up to violate copyright laws by stealing tons of news content to train AI.
However, now the details that should never have been marked confidential are starting to leak. In a motion for summary judgment that was unsealed Thursday from news plaintiffs led by The New York Times, internal documents are exposed that news groups alleged show exactly how Microsoft and OpenAI viewed the threat to news before unleashing new AI products like ChatGPT and Copilot.
Perhaps most explosively, Microsoft Director of Applied Science Brent Hecht repeatedly warned in documents that scraping news for AI training was “an astonishing theft of unprecedented proportions,” calling it perhaps the “largest theft of labor in human history,” news orgs said. In another document, Hecht contradicted Microsoft and OpenAI’s argument that training AI on news content is fair use, suggesting that the plan to widely scrape news made “a complete mockery of the idea of ‘fair use.’”
OpenAI and Microsoft knew they were starting a ‘doom loop’ for the web
September 18, 2026
FAA tees up $875M AI tool to help manage air traffic congestion
September 18, 2026
Virginia governor creates an AI task force and moves to restrain data centers
September 18, 2026
Disney’s first CTO is Character.AI’s former CEO
September 18, 2026
FCC lets Paramount sell 49.5% equity stake to Saudi Arabia, UAE, and Qatar
September 18, 2026
Finding the cells that put our brain to sleep
September 18, 2026
Hudson Williams Shares How “Surreal” It Was for Him and Connor Storrie to Return to ‘Heated Rivalry’ Set
September 19, 2026
Hetmyer century in vain as Powell powers Kingsmen to CPL final
September 19, 2026
Ravindra in doubt for India T20Is after dislocating shoulder during promo shoot
September 19, 2026
Led by World No. 3 pair of Manav-Manush, India begins TT campaign with at least a medal in mind
September 19, 2026
Erin Andrews Talks About Lessons From Her Cervical Cancer Journey
September 19, 2026
Rain allows Western Australia to escape after Fraser-McGurk's onslaught
September 19, 2026