US government backs OpenAI in New York Times copyright case

The Times' lawsuit, first filed in 2023, accuses OpenAI and its largest financial backer, Microsoft, of using millions of newspaper articles without permission to train OpenAI's popular chatbot. The case is one of dozens brought by copyright holders against tech companies such as OpenAI, Anthropic and Meta Platforms for what they say is misuse of their material to train AI systems.

The pending cases will likely revolve around whether AI systems make fair use of copyrighted material by using it to create new, transformative content. The first two judges to consider the issue issued diverging rulings last year.

The government agreed on Tuesday with tech companies that AI training is "extraordinarily" transformative.

"Beyond the subject matter of this litigation, LLMs are already helping researchers across fields achieve major breakthroughs," the brief said. "Constraining LLM development under a misunderstanding of fair use doctrine would thwart such creative and scientific progress while hindering American prosperity and economic mobility."