Legal documents in a copyright infringement case reveal that high-level executives at Microsoft and OpenAI were aware their AI tools, like ChatGPT and Copilot, posed an existential threat to news publishers by using copyrighted articles without permission. These executives acknowledged the potential harm to the news industry but continued with the practice anyway. For instance, Microsoft’s Brent Hecht warned of a "doom loop" hurting both model performance and web content suppliers’ economic foundations. The plaintiffs include major publications like The New York Times, which argue that tech companies should license paywalled content for AI training rather than circumventing it illegally.
Written locally by qwen2.5:14b on 2026-09-18,
using this article's own text rather than the other coverage of the
same event (that is the story summary below).
Story summary
Microsoft and OpenAI, key players in developing large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT, admitted in unsealed court filings that their AI products are causing significant harm to news publishers and potentially undermining the internet's economic foundations. An internal Microsoft document warned of a "doom loop" where LLMs cannibalize clicks from the very content they rely on, harming both themselves and web businesses simultaneously. Executives like Brent Hecht, director of applied science at Microsoft, noted this unusual situation where an end-product threatens its suppliers' livelihoods. The filings also revealed that OpenAI's AI tools can bypass paywalls to extract information freely, further impacting publishers' revenues without compensation for content usage. This admission comes as part of a broader legal battle with news organizations like the New York Times, challenging whether AI training infringes copyright by substituting actual journalism rather than transforming it into new work.
Written for “AI Threats To Web And Publishing” on 2026-09-18,
grounded in this article and the 4 other(s) covering the same event.
High-level staffers at a pair of top tech companies knew that scraping online news content to bolster their AI models could have devastating impacts on publishers – but that didn’t stop them, according to a bombshell legal filing.
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that → know → filing
One OpenAI executive even warned that the shady tactic, in which tech giants circumvent paywalls to access stories to train their AI, could pose an “existential threat” to news organizations, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing the newly unsealed court documents in a massive copyright case.
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Journal → warn → case
A director at Microsoft had also sounded the alarm over the dodgy practice.
asserted
director → sound → practice
“Our AI content strategy has started a ‘doom loop’ that will hurt the performance of our models and the entire web at the same time,” said Brent Hecht, Microsoft’s director of applied science, the filing shows.
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filing → start → science
“It is highly unusual that an end-product threatens the economic foundations of its essential suppliers, but that is the situation we have created for our LLM business with respect to its ‘content supply chain,’” said Hecht.
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Hecht → threaten → chain
The filing was made public Thursday in a copyright infringement case brought against Microsoft and OpenAI by several news publishers, including The New York Times.
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filing → make → Times
The Times sued OpenAI and Microsoft in December 2023, alleging that ChatGPT and Microsoft’s Copilot used millions of their articles to train its models and answer users’ questions.
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ChatGPT → sue → questions
Other papers owned by Alden Global Capital, such as the Chicago Tribune and the New York Daily News, also sued the companies in 2024, but the cases were eventually consolidated, the outlet reported.
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outlet → own → 2024
ChatGPT chief Nick Turley acknowledged that AI products could become increasingly “substitutive” and said that they posed an “existential threat” to publishers, the filing alleged.
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filing → acknowledge → publishers
AI products “will get more and more substitutive as they get better,” Turley wrote, per the outlet.
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Turley → get → outlet
OpenAI internal documents even referred to ChatGPT as a “modern newsstand,” the filing said.
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filing → refer → newsstand
The document also detailed internal discussions about skirting publishers’ paywalls — including an exchange in which OpenAI President Greg Brockman responded “ah nice” after a researcher found a hack to get around the Times paywall.
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researcher → detail → paywall
The news organizations are looking for a federal judge to rule in their favor before the case goes to trial, citing internal documents and testimony from Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, Brockman, and Turley.
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case → look → Nadella
The publishers detailed the allegations against the top AI companies in the brief that was jointly filed.
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that → detail → brief
Nadella had testified that “anything that is paywalled should be licensed by anyone who wants to use it,” for AI training, adding that he would have Microsoft force OpenAI to retrain its models after learning they had used paywalled content.
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they → testify → content
The Microsoft CEO also testified that conversing with the chatbots could be a substitute for websites, instead of “needing to go to the underlying source,” the document detailed.
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document → testify → source
The tech companies have contended scraping from news sites constitutes “fair use,” allowing some copyright material to be used without explicit permission.
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material → contend → permission
Hecht’s comments “reflect one employee’s individual perspective, are not a legal analysis, and do not represent the company’s views,” a Microsoft representative told The Post.
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representative → reflect → Post
“Microsoft’s position is set out in its court filings, which explain why these transformative uses are consistent with copyright law and why Copilot is not a substitute for publishers’ journalism,” the spokesperson continued.
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spokesperson → set → journalism
The Justice Department also recently filed a statement of interest in the suit, arguing that the companies’ use of news content is allowed under fair use in US copyright law, the outlet reported.
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outlet → file → law
OpenAI did not immediately respond to The Post’s request for comment.
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OpenAI → respond → comment
The Aporia
