Seattle Times and Newsday Sue OpenAI and Microsoft Over AI Training
Two more news organizations have filed suit over the supposed use of their journalism to train AI, warning that generative AI is "a snake eating its own tail" that could destroy the outlets producing the content it feeds on.
Published: 2026-09-07 Category: Quick Take Sources: TechCrunch
The lawsuit
The Seattle Times and Newsday have filed suit against OpenAI and Microsoft over the supposed use of their journalism to train AI models. The lawsuit argues that with the advent of AI, the journalism industry could become "broken beyond repair."
The filing's framing is pointed: generative AI is "a snake eating its own tail" that could "destroy the very organizations" that produce the content it's trained on. The complaint accuses AI products like ChatGPT and Copilot of being "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."
The pattern
This continues a legal wave that began in 2023, when The New York Times sued OpenAI and its partner and investor Microsoft over alleged copyright infringement. Other publications have followed suit as that case has wound through the courts. The Seattle Times suit stands out for a specific reason: Microsoft and OpenAI have actually funded some of the organization's journalism projects and fellowships.
That funding relationship makes the lawsuit more than a straightforward copyright fight. It is a reminder that the news industry is simultaneously dependent on and adversarial toward the very AI companies it is suing — a tension that runs through nearly every major publisher's relationship with the AI labs. A Microsoft spokesperson told GeekWire the company is "surprised by the lawsuit" but "always happy to sit down and explore solutions to this type of dispute."
Why it matters
The legal landscape around AI training and journalism is still being defined, and every new plaintiff adds weight to the argument that the courts — not licensing deals — are the venue where the terms of AI journalism will be set. The US government recently sided with OpenAI on the underlying question of training on copyrighted material, which complicates the publishers' position at the federal level. But the state-level and class-action track keeps moving, and the sheer breadth of litigants keeps pressure on.
The deeper issue is existential for newsrooms. If AI genuinely threatens to "destroy the very organizations" that produce the training data, then every settlement and every court ruling determines not just compensation but the long-term viability of the journalism industry itself.
Source: TechCrunch, "Seattle Times and Newsday are the latest publications to sue OpenAI and Microsoft" (2026).