AI's 'Labor Theft' Shock: Microsoft, OpenAI's Internal Fears

Newly unsealed court documents highlight significant internal unease within Microsoft and OpenAI regarding the use of millions of news articles for artificial intelligence development.

Microsoft employees reportedly debated whether OpenAI's actions represented "the largest theft of labor in human history," potentially creating a "doom loop" that could degrade AI models. An internal Microsoft document from 2023 stated that millions of individuals would view AI "hoovering up" their work as an "astonishing theft."

Within OpenAI, there were also worries that ChatGPT could divert readers from traditional news sources. A June 2023 memo from Nick Turley, who led ChatGPT's development team, described AI as an "existential threat" to publishers, noting in February 2024 that AI products would become increasingly substitutive as they improved.

These discussions became public as part of a lawsuit The New York Times and eleven other publishers filed against OpenAI and Microsoft in late 2023, alleging copyright violations through the scraping and training of AI systems on their content without consent or compensation.

Microsoft and OpenAI maintain their use of copyrighted material falls under "fair use," arguing the AI significantly transforms the original work and does not serve as a substitute. However, internal communications suggest awareness of the potential impact on the news industry's survival, with one Microsoft director describing large AI models as "a product that destroys its supply chain."