The New York Times and a coalition of news organizations are seeking a summary judgment in their long-running copyright lawsuit against OpenAI and Microsoft, citing internal documents that they say reveal the companies knew the risks of scraping news content for AI training.
The filings, unsealed this week, include a January 2023 memo from Microsoft Director of Applied Science Brent Hecht, who warned 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” and called it “the largest theft of labor in human history.” Another Microsoft document acknowledged that “almost no one intended for content they created to be used in this fashion, nor are they compensated for its use.”
Hecht also directly contradicted the companies' fair-use defense, writing in one document that the plan to widely scrape news made “a complete mockery of the idea of ‘fair use.’” The brief cited internal data showing that Microsoft's Copilot reduced click-through rates for The New York Times by as much as 93% compared to traditional Bing search.
Another internal memo described the situation as a “doom loop,” predicting that AI-generated summaries would “hurt the performance of our models and the entire web at the same time.” Hecht noted it was “highly unusual that an end-product threatens the economic foundations of its essential suppliers.”
Microsoft has sought to distance itself from Hecht's comments. Spokesperson Alex Haurek told The Verge that the statements “ref” — the response was cut off in the article — suggesting the company may argue the comments do not reflect official policy.
Many of the most damaging documents remain sealed or redacted at the request of both companies, according to 404 Media. The case, filed in late 2023, continues to unfold nearly three years later.