The Justice Department has backed OpenAI in its high-stakes legal battle with the New York Times, arguing in a Manhattan federal court filing that using copyrighted content to train AI models does not violate copyright law. The intervention marks a significant development in a case that could reshape the media industry’s relationship with artificial intelligence.
The Times first sued OpenAI and Microsoft in December 2023, alleging that ChatGPT’s creator had used ‘millions’ of copyrighted articles to build AI products that directly compete with the newspaper. The case, filed in Manhattan federal court, is one of several lawsuits accusing AI companies of copyright infringement.
‘The United States has a strong interest in this Court rejecting any argument that training LLMs on copyrighted texts violates copyright law,’ DOJ officials wrote in the brief published Wednesday. The agency argued that an adverse ruling would hamper development of AI models critical for US national security, noting that foreign adversaries would not be held back by copyright law.
The DOJ also expressed concern that a ruling against OpenAI would hamper competition, as only the largest technology companies might have the capital to pay licensing fees. ‘It would be problematic, and legally incorrect, to impose broad copyright liability that would generally render training of AI models impermissible without licensing,’ the filing stated.
A Times spokesperson pushed back forcefully, saying the administration is ‘siding with a handful of trillion-dollar AI companies at the expense of the countless American creators whose work they stole.’ The spokesperson argued that AI companies simply need to pay fairly for content, as copyright law requires.
The DOJ’s stance appeared to contradict the administration’s own AI framework released in March, which called on Congress to consider collective licensing agreements requiring AI companies to compensate media firms. Evan Swarztrauber, a former FCC adviser, called the contradiction ‘surprising’ and speculated it may reflect a disconnect between the DOJ and the White House.
The News/Media Alliance, representing more than 2,000 outlets, expressed concern over the filing. ‘We understand the draw of economic investment that AI companies are promising, but strict application of the law is required by the courts,’ said Danielle Coffey, the group’s president and CEO.
For New York’s media industry, which employs hundreds of thousands across the city, the case represents an existential question about compensation and survival in an AI-driven future.
Source: NY Post
