The Trump administration has entered the legal battle between OpenAI and The New York Times, supporting the ChatGPT-maker's position that its use of millions of news articles to train artificial intelligence models is protected under copyright law's fair use doctrine. In court filings on Tuesday, the Justice Department asserted that the creative possibilities and public benefits derived from training large language models on internet content significantly outweigh any potential competitive harm.
The department contended that ruling in favor of The New York Times and other publishers, who claim OpenAI's practices infringe copyright, would stifle innovation and hinder American economic progress. Justice Department attorneys stated that the rapid economic and national security transformations driven by AI are due to their ability to assist individuals, including those in creative fields, in producing work and accomplishing tasks. They further noted that these creative benefits often align with national security interests, as AI models can help analyze information from public sources like New York Times articles.
This legal dispute highlights the challenges courts face in addressing the rapid advancement of AI tools, often lacking established legal precedents or language to manage such novel issues. The New York Times, however, criticized the administration's stance, accusing it of siding with large AI companies at the expense of creators whose work was used without permission or compensation.
"Both AI and creators can thrive — AI companies simply need to pay fairly for the content that makes their products possible, as copyright law requires," said Graham James, a spokesperson for The Times. "The Administration’s proposal to let companies take that content without permission or compensation would undermine the sustainability of the human-created content that a healthy society depends on, and which AI needs to function."
The New York Times initiated its lawsuit against OpenAI in 2023, alleging that the company's AI models threatened journalists' livelihoods by using its copyrighted material without authorization, sometimes reproducing The Times' content verbatim. The potential impact on news organizations was further emphasized in 2024 when Google began displaying AI-generated summaries at the top of search results, potentially diverting advertising revenue from original content creators.
Other news organizations, including MediaNews Group-owned newspapers like the New York Daily News and the Chicago Tribune, digital publisher Ziff Davis, and the non-profit Center for Investigative Reporting, have joined The Times in its legal action. Similar lawsuits have been filed by individual writers who claim their works were used to train AI models without their consent.
The New York Times' legal arguments focus on unfair competition, asserting that companies are attempting to profit from The Times' substantial investment in journalism by creating derivative products without permission or payment.