A coalition of eight U.S. newspapers is suing ChatGPT-maker OpenAI and Microsoft Corp, alleging that they have engaged in “purloining millions” of copyrighted news articles without permission or payment to train their generative AI models.

The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, comes from the Chicago Tribune, the New York Daily News, the Orlando Sentinel, the Sun Sentinel in Florida, The Mercury News in San Jose, California, The Orange County Register in California and the Pioneer Press of Minnesota. All the publishers are owned by the hedge fund Alden Global Capital.

The complaint states that, at times, the text that the AI products produce is taken wholesale from newspaper articles without any changes being made. The original publication is not cited and the text doesn’t link back to the article, says the complaint, explaining that this affects the bottom line of local newspapers and results in fewer subscriptions.

Philosophically, the complaint states that this is “not a battle between new technology and old technology” or “a battle between a thriving industry and an industry in transition.” It’s about not paying for someone’s work to fuel what the coalition called “trillion-dollar enterprises.”

“We’ve spent billions of dollars gathering information and reporting news at our publications, and we can’t allow OpenAI and Microsoft to expand the Big Tech playbook of stealing our work to build their own businesses at our expense,” said Frank Pine, executive editor for the MediaNews Group and Tribune Publishing.

A spokesperson for Open AI said the company wasn’t aware of Alden Global Capital’s concerns. “We are actively engaged in constructive partnerships and conversations with many news organizations around the world to explore opportunities, discuss any concerns, and provide solutions,” the spokesperson added.

This isn’t the first time traditional content creators have sued AI companies and likely it won’t be the last. Similar lawsuits have come from media companies but also authors of books and musicians. In some cases, deals have been struck between AI firms and publishers. As the world grapples with generative AI and the possible displacement of other forms of content, no doubt there will be a constant stream of lawsuits and new legislation around AI and copyright infringement.

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