USA Today Co and several newspapers it owns have sued OpenAI in Manhattan federal court, alleging the company copied hundreds of thousands of their articles and other materials without permission to train the system behind its chatbot ChatGPT.
The lawsuit, filed on Thursday, accuses OpenAI of infringing the outlets' copyrights by using their content to train its large language models. Spokespersons for OpenAI did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the complaint, according to Reuters.
USA Today requested damages "in excess of $250 million" and a court order blocking OpenAI's alleged infringement. The case is USA Today Co v. OpenAI Foundation, U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, No. 1:26-cv-08892.
The complaint is one of dozens of high-stakes lawsuits filed by copyright owners against technology companies including OpenAI, Anthropic and Meta Platforms for allegedly misusing their work in AI training. OpenAI and its largest financial backer, Microsoft, are already facing similar claims in Manhattan court from prominent authors and news outlets including The New York Times.
Technology companies have argued that their systems make fair use of copyrighted material by transforming it into something new — a defence that is now being tested in a growing number of courtrooms.
The USA Today complaint specifically alleges that OpenAI copied hundreds of thousands of the outlets' articles and other materials and used them without permission to train the system behind ChatGPT, joining a wave of disputes that could shape how AI developers source training data from publishers.
Sources:
USA Today sues OpenAI for copyright infringement over AI training — Reuters
The lawsuit, filed on Thursday, accuses OpenAI of infringing the outlets' copyrights by using their content to train its large language models. Spokespersons for OpenAI did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the complaint, according to Reuters.
USA Today requested damages "in excess of $250 million" and a court order blocking OpenAI's alleged infringement. The case is USA Today Co v. OpenAI Foundation, U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, No. 1:26-cv-08892.
The complaint is one of dozens of high-stakes lawsuits filed by copyright owners against technology companies including OpenAI, Anthropic and Meta Platforms for allegedly misusing their work in AI training. OpenAI and its largest financial backer, Microsoft, are already facing similar claims in Manhattan court from prominent authors and news outlets including The New York Times.
Technology companies have argued that their systems make fair use of copyrighted material by transforming it into something new — a defence that is now being tested in a growing number of courtrooms.
The USA Today complaint specifically alleges that OpenAI copied hundreds of thousands of the outlets' articles and other materials and used them without permission to train the system behind ChatGPT, joining a wave of disputes that could shape how AI developers source training data from publishers.
Sources:
USA Today sues OpenAI for copyright infringement over AI training — Reuters
