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US backs OpenAI in New York Times copyright lawsuit over AI training

From El Universal · () Spanish

Translated from Spanish and summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.

At a glance

News Named sources In the courts
  • The Trump administration backed OpenAI in The New York Times’ copyright lawsuit, arguing that AI training brings scientific, economic and national security benefits.
  • The Justice Department said training AI models on written works is highly transformative and may qualify as fair use under US law.
  • The Times accused the administration of siding with highly valued AI companies at the expense of American creators, while the case reflects a broader copyright fight over generative AI.

The Trump administration has sided with OpenAI in its copyright battle with The New York Times, arguing that the benefits of training large language models outweigh the newspaper’s claimed competitive harm.

The Justice Department presented its position in a 20-page filing to the federal court in New York handling the case. The Times sued OpenAI and Microsoft in late 2023, alleging that the companies used millions of its articles without permission to train their powerful AI models.

The creative possibilities and public benefits of advancing the training of large language models far outweigh any competitive harm

· US Department of JusticeThe government’s filing argued that AI training benefits outweigh the competitive harm claimed by The New York Times.

The department said the creative possibilities and public benefits of advancing language-model training “far outweigh any competitive harm.” It also argued that training AI systems on written works is “extraordinarily transformative,” which could allow it to qualify for the fair-use exception under US copyright law.

Deputy Attorney General Stanley Woodward said on X that “this administration will never allow our nation to be disadvantaged against our foreign adversaries because of a plainly mistaken interpretation of copyright law.”

this administration will never allow our nation to be disadvantaged against our foreign adversaries because of a plainly mistaken interpretation of copyright law

· Stanley WoodwardThe deputy attorney general defended the administration’s position in a message on X.

The Times rejected the government’s position. Spokesman Graham James said the Justice Department had aligned itself with “trillion-dollar AI companies” at the expense of American creators. Allowing companies to take material without permission or compensation, he said, would undermine the sustainability of human-created content on which a healthy society depends and which AI itself needs.

Copyright has become a central legal battleground for generative AI. Publishers, musicians and artists have pursued lawsuits or negotiated licensing agreements over technology built with their work. In July, a US judge approved a $1.5 billion settlement between Anthropic and authors who said the company illegally copied their works to train Claude. In May, publishers including Hachette, Cengage, Elsevier and Turow sued Meta.

trillion-dollar AI companies

· Graham JamesThe New York Times spokesman accused the Justice Department of siding with major AI firms.
About this summary

Originally published by El Universal in Spanish. Translated, summarized, and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.

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