Microsoft exec called AI scraping ‘the largest theft of labor in human history,’ new unredacted filings reveal
Newly unsealed court filings reveal Microsoft privately described OpenAI’s data practices as “theft” while both companies scraped paywalled New York Times content, built datasets from it, and internally acknowledged the practice could severely damage publishers.
MAIN POINTS
- Microsoft allegedly called OpenAI’s data practices “theft” in private court-related filings.
- Both companies reportedly scraped paywalled New York Times content for dataset creation.
- Internal warnings suggested the practice could significantly harm or “gut” publishers.
- The filings expose tension between public AI development and private concerns over content use.
TAKEAWAYS
- AI training data collection is facing sharper legal and ethical scrutiny.
- Major tech companies may publicly collaborate while privately disputing data practices.
- Paywalled journalism is increasingly vulnerable to large-scale scraping and reuse.
- Publisher concerns about revenue loss and content exploitation are becoming central to AI litigation.