OpenAI and Microsoft have been worried about how their new technology can harm the news organisations. Court papers that were made public this week have exposed conversations behind the doors between the senior management of the two tech giants. The comment that stood out in the public documents was from the Microsoft applied science director, Brent Hecht. In the comment he clearly stated that using a news article will be the largest theft of labour in human history. Follow along with the article to learn everything we know about the details that were recently made public.
According to the recent details that came to light, it confirms that there were internal concerns in OpenAI and Microsoft over how AI systems could affect journalism. Amongst them was a comment from Microsoft Applied Science director Dr Brent Hecht, who reportedly described the use of news content by AI systems as the ‘largest theft of labour in human history. ‘Not only that, but he also warned that AI could create a cycle that harms the publishers whose work helps supply the technology.
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Another Microsoft document dated back to 2023 said millions of people could view AI systems collecting their work as an ‘astonishing theft of unprecedented proportions’. Other than that, OpenAI’s Turley also reportedly said that AI products were ‘largely substitutive’ to journalism. An OpenAI engineer also wrote that users would not necessarily click news links even when they were displayed prominently.
These comments were a part of the newly unsealed court documents under the lawsuit which was launched by The New York Times against OpenAI and Microsoft back in 2023.
The records also describe efforts to collect online material, including discussions about getting around paywalls. In one exchange, an employee told OpenAI President Greg Brockman about a new method for bypassing a paywall. Brockman’s reported response was ‘Ah, nice.’
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The documents also contain claims that millions of documents were scraped for training datasets and that copyright notices were removed. However, only portions of the records have been unsealed, meaning the full context behind individual comments is not publicly available.
Microsoft has said that individual employee comments do not represent its legal position. Spokesperson Alex Haurek pointed to the company’s court filings, which argue that its AI uses are allowed under copyright law and that Copilot does not replace publishers’ journalism.