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Technology — Artificial Intelligence

Microsoft Executive Called AI Scraping “Largest Theft of Labor”

The documents are part of a copyright lawsuit brought by The New York Times and 11 other publishers, who allege that their content was used without permission.

,   and  TIPP Staff
2 min read
Microsoft, OpenAI workers privately worried their work is 'largest theft of labor in human history'. Pic via(@nypost)

Newly unsealed court documents have revealed internal discussions at Microsoft and OpenAI about the use of news articles to train artificial intelligence systems.

The documents are part of a copyright lawsuit brought by The New York Times and 11 other publishers, who allege that their content was used without permission.

In 2023, Microsoft executive Brent Hecht described AI scraping as potentially the “largest theft of labor in human history” and warned that AI models could damage the news ecosystem that supplies their training material.

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OpenAI executive Nick Turley reportedly described AI products as “largely substitutive,” while other internal discussions raised concerns about a potential decline in the quality of AI models as original content becomes harder to produce.

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella testified that paywalled material should be licensed. The filings also contain an exchange in which OpenAI president Greg Brockman responded positively to a proposal involving a way around The New York Times’ paywall.

The publishers argue the documents demonstrate concerns within the companies about the fairness of their practices. Microsoft and OpenAI maintain that their use of copyrighted material for AI training is protected by fair-use principles.

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