NYT report on OpenAI's own "existential threat" warning about publishers resurfaces as USA Today sues
OpenAI staff knew the ‘existential threat’ AI posed to publishers, per the NYT
Context
Internal OpenAI messages saying ChatGPT substitutes for news are now being cited in new publisher lawsuits, which cuts against the fair use defense OpenAI relies on.
The New York Times sued OpenAI and Microsoft for copyright infringement in December 2023, and documents in that case are being unsealed as Judge Sidney Stein weighs motions for summary judgment. The Times reported on September 17 that the unsealed documents showed concern inside OpenAI and Microsoft about training on news articles. On October 8 USA Today Co. and its local papers filed their own suit against OpenAI seeking more than $250 million, citing the same OpenAI quotes.
Deep dive
The quotes behind this post are not new on October 9. They come from court filings unsealed on September 17 in the copyright case brought by The New York Times and other publishers, which the Times and other outlets reported at the time. The unusual_whales post recirculated the Times report a day after USA Today Co. filed its own lawsuit.
According to the Times, Nick Turley, who leads ChatGPT, wrote in a June 2023 memo that AI posed an "existential threat" to publishers, and in February 2024 that AI products "will get more and more substitutive as they get better." The filings also quote an OpenAI engineer writing that "no matter how prominently we show the links, users won't click." The Times reported that OpenAI did not respond to requests for comment.
The filings also cite Microsoft documents. Brent Hecht, Microsoft's director of applied science, warned of a "doom loop" and wrote that many people would see AI training as an astonishing theft. A Microsoft spokesman told the Times that Hecht's memos did not represent the company's views.
USA Today's complaint, filed in Manhattan federal court on October 8, cites Turley's quote, according to coverage of the filing. The Verge says the suit claims OpenAI copied hundreds of thousands of articles and seeks more than $250 million. OpenAI argues that training on copyrighted material is fair use.
What to expect next
Watch Judge Stein's rulings on summary judgment in the Times case, since the unsealed messages go to whether ChatGPT substitutes for news, a central question for fair use. No ruling has been made on the merits yet.
Also watch whether more publishers cite the same documents in new suits, as USA Today did, and how OpenAI answers the USA Today complaint in court.