GoKawiilMicrosoft says Copilot rarely copies news or book text in copyright lawsuit filings
Microsoft submitted 8.2 million Copilot chat logs as part of discovery in copyright suits from The New York Times, the Center for Investigative Reporting, and book authors. The company says only 59,545 logs shared at least 16 words with plaintiffs' news content, with far fewer showing substantial text overlap, and just 10 of 212 books evaluated had any matching passages.
GoKawiil's interpretation of the reporting above, not reported fact.
These figures are central to Microsoft's fair-use defense, aiming to show Copilot transforms rather than reproduces copyrighted works despite training on them. The outcome could shape how courts weigh AI training practices against publishers' and authors' copyright claims across the industry.
- Microsoft analyzed 8.2 million Copilot chats selected for likely overlap with plaintiffs' content.
- Only a small fraction showed significant textual overlap with news articles or books.
- Microsoft argues this supports classifying AI training as transformative fair use.
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Published there as: “Microsoft says virtually nobody was grabbing NYT articles through its chatbot”
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