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AIQuiet 9d · day 10

Court filing reveals Microsoft, OpenAI knew AI training on journalists' work posed existential threat

Unsealed documents in copyright lawsuit show internal memos calling the practice theft; companies proceeded anyway for profit.

newest coverage 9d agosummary written 8d ago3 pieces MastodonNewswires

What to know

  • Internal memos from Microsoft and OpenAI acknowledged that training AI on journalists' work constituted theft and posed an existential threat to publishing and journalism employment.
  • OpenAI obtained over 1.8 million New York Times articles from a corpus licensed only for non-commercial use, violating the licensing agreement.
  • Despite recognizing these harms, both companies proceeded with commercialization, driven by the enormous financial returns the products would generate.
  • The New York Times and 11 other news organizations are suing for copyright infringement; the companies do not dispute using the stolen content.

“has started a 'doom loop,' one that will ironically 'hurt the performance of our models and the entire web at the same time'”

Microsoft memo, Internal analysis · Truthout ↗

OpenAI AI company defendant in copyright lawsuitMicrosoft AI company defendant in copyright lawsuitNick Turley Led ChatGPT development teamSam AltmanSam Altman OpenAI co-founder and CEOThe New York Times and 11 other news organizations Plaintiffs in copyright infringement lawsuit

Court filing reveals Microsoft, OpenAI knew AI training on journalists' work posed existential threat
truthout.org

How it unfolded 1 development · click the chart to see its coverage articlesposts

Peak 2 pieces in 3h at Sep 18, 11 AM; 3 pieces over 10 days (2 articles · 1 post) Sep 17, 2 PM — 1 piece · 1 article — Newswires 1Sep 17, 5 PM — quietSep 17, 8 PM — quietSep 17, 11 PM — quietSep 18, 2 AM — quietSep 18, 5 AM — quietSep 18, 8 AM — quietSep 18, 11 AM — 2 pieces · 1 article · 1 post — Newswires 1, Mastodon 1Sep 18, 2 PM — quietSep 18, 5 PM — quietSep 18, 8 PM — quietSep 18, 11 PM — quietSep 19, 2 AM — quietSep 19, 5 AM — quietSep 19, 8 AM — quietSep 19, 11 AM — quietSep 19, 2 PM — quietSep 19, 5 PM — quietSep 19, 8 PM — quietSep 19, 11 PM — quietSep 20, 2 AM — quietSep 20, 5 AM — quietSep 20, 8 AM — quietSep 20, 11 AM — quietSep 20, 2 PM — quietSep 20, 5 PM — quietSep 20, 8 PM — quietSep 20, 11 PM — quietSep 21, 2 AM — quietSep 21, 5 AM — quietSep 21, 8 AM — quietSep 21, 11 AM — quietSep 21, 2 PM — quietSep 21, 5 PM — quietSep 21, 8 PM — quietSep 21, 11 PM — quietSep 22, 2 AM — quietSep 22, 5 AM — quietSep 22, 8 AM — quietSep 22, 11 AM — quietSep 22, 2 PM — quietSep 22, 5 PM — quietSep 22, 8 PM — quietSep 22, 11 PM — quietSep 23, 2 AM — quietSep 23, 5 AM — quietSep 23, 8 AM — quietSep 23, 11 AM — quietSep 23, 2 PM — quietSep 23, 5 PM — quietSep 23, 8 PM — quietSep 23, 11 PM — quietSep 24, 2 AM — quietSep 24, 5 AM — quietSep 24, 8 AM — quietSep 24, 11 AM — quietSep 24, 2 PM — quietSep 24, 5 PM — quietSep 24, 8 PM — quietSep 24, 11 PM — quietSep 25, 2 AM — quietSep 25, 5 AM — quietSep 25, 8 AM — quietSep 25, 11 AM — quietSep 25, 2 PM — quietSep 25, 5 PM — quietSep 25, 8 PM — quietSep 25, 11 PM — quietYesterday, 2 AM — quietYesterday, 5 AM — quietYesterday, 8 AM — quietYesterday, 11 AM — quietYesterday, 2 PM — quietYesterday, 5 PM — quietYesterday, 8 PM — quietYesterday, 11 PM — quietToday, 2 AM — quietToday, 5 AM — quietToday, 8 AM — quietToday, 11 AM — quietToday, 2 PM — quiet 1
Sep 18Sep 19Sep 20Sep 21Sep 22Sep 23Sep 24Sep 25yesterdaynow · 3:48 PM ET
  1. 1

    Documents show OpenAI and Microsoft pursued commercialization despite internal warnings

    The court filing demonstrates that despite recognizing the harms posed by their AI systems, Microsoft and OpenAI continued developing the products driven by financial motivations. The filing notes that although OpenAI was founded with a goal of "benefit[ing] humanity as a whole," by 2017 CEO Sam Altman was planning to form a for-profit entity to carry forward AI research. Microsoft recognized that "millions of people around the world will soon consider large models 'hoovering up' all their work to be an astonishing theft of unprecedented proportions."

    “millions of people around the world will soon consider large models 'hoovering up' all their work to be an astonishing theft of unprecedented proportions…”
    — Microsoft (internal recognition)
  2. background

    Internal memos show Microsoft and OpenAI recognized harms of using journalists' work — Documents detail internal memos where Nick Turley, who led ChatGPT development, called AI an "existential threat" to publishers. A senior Microsoft employee described the AI models as "an astonishing theft of unprecedented proportions" and possibly the "largest theft of labor in human history." Another memo warned that AI could "significantly disrupt[] the employment of the very people who generated the data on which the foundation model was trained" and created a "doom loop" that would "hurt the performance of our models and the entire web at the same time."

  3. background

    Court filing reveals Microsoft and OpenAI internal warnings about AI training on news content — Unsealed court documents in a copyright infringement lawsuit by The New York Times and 11 other news organizations show that Microsoft and OpenAI employees expressed alarm that their jointly developed AI systems could pose an "existential threat" to the publishing industry. The documents reveal that OpenAI used over 1.8 million New York Times articles published between 1987 and 2007 from The New York Times Annotated Corpus, which had a user license restricting use to "non-commercial" purposes.