Microsoft director: AI scraping 'the largest theft of labor in human history'

Bulletin: AI Training Data

A Microsoft director’s internal characterization of AI web scraping has surfaced in legal filings tied to the New York Times’ lawsuit against OpenAI and Microsoft, according to a report published by Tom’s Hardware and circulated via Hacker News on September 19. The director reportedly described the practice as “the largest theft of labor in human history.”

The same filings reportedly contain a separate remark attributed to OpenAI’s leadership, characterizing ChatGPT as an “existential threat” to publishers. Tom’s Hardware frames both statements as revelations drawn from legal briefs connected to the ongoing litigation, though the outlet’s report does not specify the exact document, date, or full context in which either remark was made.

The New York Times filed suit against OpenAI and Microsoft in late 2023, alleging that the companies used millions of the paper’s articles without permission to train large language models, and that resulting chatbot outputs at times reproduced Times content closely. That case remains active in federal court.

The report gives no further detail on the identity of the Microsoft director quoted, nor on the specific legal motion or exhibit from which the remark was drawn. No response from Microsoft or OpenAI regarding the quoted statements is included in the available material.