NYT slams Microsoft for building copyright-infringing supercomputer for OpenAI

The New York Times has filed an amended lawsuit against Microsoft and OpenAI, alleging that Microsoft built a custom supercomputer specifically designed to help train artificial intelligence models on copyrighted Times articles without permission. This legal action comes after a Supreme Court ruling changed the standard for proving that a company is responsible for another company's copyright infringement, requiring plaintiffs to show intentional encouragement of illegal conduct rather than just providing tools. The Times claims the supercomputer prioritized its articles to train the most capable language model possible, allowed models to reproduce near-verbatim excerpts of Times content that can bypass paywalls, and falsely attribute information to the Times. The outcome could determine whether training AI on copyrighted works qualifies as fair use, with potential remedies ranging from damages to requiring the companies to restart their models from scratch.