USA Today Co. sues OpenAI over alleged use of its articles

In short: USA Today Co. says OpenAI copied its journalism without permission to train AI systems, and it is seeking more than $250 million in damages.

What happened

USA Today Co., along with several local newspapers it owns, has filed a copyright lawsuit against OpenAI. The publisher claims OpenAI copied “hundreds of thousands” of its articles to train its AI models.

Training an AI model is like teaching a student by giving them a huge reading list. The lawsuit says OpenAI used USA Today Co.’s work as part of that reading list without asking or paying.

In a court filing, the publisher asks for damages of more than $250 million. It says the alleged use of its content “has done real and continuing” harm to its news outlets. The lawsuit includes papers such as The Tennessean, Indy Star, The Columbus Dispatch, and The Oklahoman.

OpenAI did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Verge.

Why it matters

This case adds to a growing list of disputes over who gets paid when AI systems learn from online writing. If publishers win big cases like this, AI companies may have to make more licensing deals, remove certain content from their training data, or change how their products work. That could affect how AI tools answer questions, summarize news, and quote information people read online.

Source: The Verge AI