Two more news organizations have decided to join the growing pile of lawsuits against OpenAI and Microsoft, alleging that their journalism was used to train AI without permission. The Seattle Times and Newsday filed a lawsuit arguing that with the advent of AI, the journalism industry could become 'broken beyond repair.' Because apparently, the industry wasn't already broken enough by ad blockers and the decline of print.

The lawsuit describes generative AI as 'a snake eating its own tail' that could 'destroy the very organizations' that produce the content it's trained on. In other words, AI is like a parasite that consumes its host, but with better grammar. The suit goes on to say, 'AI products like ChatGPT and CoPilot are touted as producers of content, but in fact they are rapacious consumers, devouring human-authored content and delivering back to the world copies and derivative imitations of that same original content they consumed to achieve their commercial objectives.' So, AI is not a creator but a very efficient mimic, like a parrot with a law degree.

Back in 2023, The New York Times sued OpenAI and its partner/investor Microsoft over alleged copyright infringement, and other publications have followed suit as the case continued. The Seattle Times' lawsuit is particularly notable because Microsoft and OpenAI have actually funded some of the organization's journalism projects and fellowships. Nothing says 'we value your work' like suing the people who paid for some of it.

A Microsoft spokesperson told GeekWire that the company is 'surprised by the lawsuit' but is 'always happy to sit down and explore solutions to this type of dispute.' Surprised, they say, even though this is becoming a recurring theme. Perhaps they were too busy training models to read the news.