GoKawiilCourt filings show OpenAI, Microsoft execs called AI training an 'existential threat' to publishers
Newly unredacted court documents from copyright lawsuits against OpenAI and Microsoft reveal internal comments from executives acknowledging that scraping published journalism to train chatbots amounted to theft on a massive scale. Microsoft's Brent Hecht reportedly described it as possibly 'the largest theft of labor in human history,' while an OpenAI executive warned that products like ChatGPT posed an 'existential threat' to publishers.
GoKawiil's interpretation of the reporting above, not reported fact.
These admissions could seriously weaken the AI companies' fair-use defense in ongoing litigation brought by The New York Times, Ziff Davis and others, since fair use hinges partly on how the copied material affects the market for the original work. Evidence that executives knew about paywall workarounds and internally recognized the threat to journalism strengthens publishers' claims of willful infringement.
- Unsealed filings quote Microsoft and OpenAI executives acknowledging mass copying of published content.
- Internal messages reportedly show OpenAI staff discussing a workaround for The New York Times' paywall.
- The disclosures could undermine AI firms' fair-use arguments in pending copyright lawsuits.
Source: cnet.com — Jon Reed, 2026-09-18
Published there as: “AI Firms Knew Chatbots Were an ‘Existential Threat’ to Journalists, Court Docs Show”
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