Microsoft, OpenAI Messages Warn AI May Weaken Publisher Web
Internal communications describe falling website traffic, lower publisher revenue and a potential decline in the content available to support AI systems.
Internal Microsoft and OpenAI communications describe a risk that AI-generated answers could reduce website traffic, publisher revenue and the incentives to produce new content, potentially weakening the material used to support AI systems.
Microsoft director of applied science Brent Hecht wrote that “Our AI content strategy has started a ‘doom loop.’” The document describes fewer clicks reaching websites, which could reduce publisher revenue and make content production less attractive. It also warns that the quality or availability of material used by AI systems could decline.
Nick Turley, OpenAI’s head of ChatGPT, described publishers as facing an “existential threat” and characterized OpenAI’s products as “largely substitutive, period.”
The News Plaintiffs filed the 92-page court filing Sept. 17 in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. The consolidated cases examine whether Microsoft and OpenAI unlawfully copied copyrighted news articles to train and operate commercial AI systems, and whether those uses qualify as fair use under Section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Act.
The publishers allege that an OpenAI employee developed a method to bypass The New York Times’ paywall. OpenAI co-founder Greg Brockman allegedly responded to the method by writing, “Ah, nice.”
Those allegations have not been adjudicated. The filing asks U.S. District Judge Sidney Stein to resolve the publishers’ copyright and fair-use claims on summary judgment, a procedure that can decide legal claims without a trial.
The litigation is consolidated in federal multidistrict proceedings before Stein in the Southern District of New York. The New York Times sued Microsoft and OpenAI in December 2023 over alleged unauthorized copying and use of its journalism and other content.
Parts of the internal communications remain sealed or redacted, limiting the context available for several statements. The publishers’ claims about traffic, content production, paywall conduct and alleged copying remain disputed as the court considers the summary-judgment arguments.
