Microsoft director: AI scraping 'the largest theft of labor in human history'
Recorded: Sept. 19, 2026, 9 p.m.
| Original | Summarized |
Microsoft director called AI scraping ‘the largest theft of labor in human history,’ while OpenAI head brands ChatGPT an ‘existential threat’ to publishers — revelations come from legal briefs filed in NYT lawsuit | Tom's Hardware
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Premium Tom's Hardware Stay On the Cutting Edge: Get the Tom's Hardware Newsletter Become a Member in Seconds Contact me with news and offers from other Future brands Receive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsors By submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over. You are now subscribed Join the club An account already exists for this email address, please log in. TrendingAI Data CentersRAM ShortageVera RubinRAM Combo DealsNova LakeTom's 30th AnniversaryIFA 2026 Tech Industry Artificial Intelligence Microsoft director called AI scraping ‘the largest theft of labor in human history,’ while OpenAI head brands ChatGPT an ‘existential threat’ to publishers — revelations come from legal briefs filed in NYT lawsuit News By Published 18 September 2026 The NYT argues that OpenAI and Microsoft infringed upon its copyright over thousands of news articles. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works. (Image credit: Getty / Cheng Xin) Copy link X Share this article 2 Join the conversation Follow us Add us as a preferred source on Google Newsletter Subscribe to our newsletter The New York Times sued OpenAI and Microsoft for copyright infringement in late 2023, with the case apparently still ongoing almost three years later. Now, the publication’s legal team has asked the court for a summary judgment after it filed a revealing legal brief based on statements and documents from the defendants. According to 404 Media, these documents remain sealed or redacted at the request of both companies, with the revelations showing potentially damaging statements from their leadership, including claims AI scraping is the biggest theft of labor in human history and an existential threat to publishers.Go deeper with TH Premium: AI and data centers (Image credit: Microsoft)The data center cooling state of playThe custom AI ASIC state of play America’s AI chip rules keep changing — and the rest of the world is paying the priceGTC 2026: Ian Buck press Q&A transcript — VP of Hyperscale and HPC speaks out on shelving CPX and shipping LPU decode this yearDemand for data center CPUs has surged, and AI agents are responsibleThe brief cited an internal memo dated January 2023 by Microsoft director of Applied Science Brent Hecht, where he allegedly said, “Millions of people around the world will soon consider large models ‘hoovering up’ all their work to be an astonishing theft of unprecedented proportions” and also called it “the largest theft of labor in human history.” Another Microsoft document was cited saying, “almost no one intended for content they created to be used in this fashion, nor are they compensated for its use.”As ChatGPT surged in popularity throughout 2023, the software giant’s own data revealed that Copilot dropped click-through rates for The New York Times by as much as 93% compared to Bing search. Another memo by the Applied Science director called it a “doom loop” and said it would “hurt the performance of our models and the entire web at the same time.” The NYT brief quoted Hecht from the document, saying, “It is highly unusual that an end-product threatens the economic foundations of its essential suppliers, but that is the situation we have created for our LLM business with respect to its ‘content supply chain.’”Latest Videos FromTom's HardwareWatch full video here: OpenAI Head of ChatGPT Nick Turley said in internal communications that the AI chatbot is an “existential threat” to publishers as they are “largely substitutive” and “will get more and more substitutive as they get better,” while another OpenAI engineer testified that “no matter how prominently we show the links, users won’t click.” Nick Ryder, another OpenAI researcher, told company president Greg Brockman about a “hack to get around nytimes paywall,” to which he replied, “ah nice.”AI companies argue that scraping the internet for data to feed to their models is “fair use,” with one court agreeing that Anthropic’s use of published material falls under this category. The law defines this as “criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use), scholarship, or research.” Some of the factors that determine whether a particular use falls under “fair use” include “(1) the purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes; (2) the nature of the copyrighted work; (3) the amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole; and (4) the effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work.” You may like Apple is taking OpenAI to court over alleged theft of trade secrets Anthropic slapped with $1.5 billion settlement in copyright lawsuit, largest payout ever Apple sues OpenAI over alleged theft of trade secrets However, all these revelations in NYT’s brief could complicate OpenAI’s fair use defense, especially as it shows that the leadership of both companies are aware of the possible market repercussions of AI scraping. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said in a deposition from earlier this year that “anything that is paywalled should be licensed by anyone who wants to use it…for grounding or training” and that if he “had been made aware that OpenAI has scraped and trained on information that was behind a paywall,” the company would have required OpenAI “to retrain its models.” Follow Tom's Hardware on Google News, or add us as a preferred source, to get our latest news, analysis, & reviews in your feeds.Stay On the Cutting Edge: Get the Tom's Hardware NewsletterGet Tom's Hardware's best news and in-depth reviews, straight to your inbox.Contact me with news and offers from other Future brandsReceive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsorsBy submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over. TOPICS OpenAI Microsoft ChatGPT See all comments (2) Jowi Morales Social Links Navigation Contributing Writer Jowi Morales is a tech enthusiast with years of experience working in the industry. He’s been writing with several tech publications since 2021, where he’s been interested in tech hardware and consumer electronics. Read more Tech Industry
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2 Comments Comment from the forums ttquantia This is still going on. I was just reading an article in a British newspaper (The Guardian), and then did a Google search with some of the key concepts discussed in that article. What Google's AI Overview gave me immediately was partly a word-by-word copy of parts of that article. Reply usertests ttquantia said:This is still going on. I was just reading an article in a British newspaper (The Guardian), and then did a Google search with some of the key concepts discussed in that article. What Google's AI Overview gave me immediately was partly a word-by-word copy of parts of that article.Search AI should be putting the descriptions that come up into the context, not baking them into the model. If that's an infringement, so is Web search. Reply View All 2 Comments Tom's Hardware is part of Future US Inc, an international media group and leading digital publisher. Visit our corporate site. Add as a preferred source on Google Terms and conditions Contact Future's experts Privacy policy Cookies policy Accessibility Statement Advertise with us About us Coupons Careers © |
Revelations from legal briefs filed in a New York Times lawsuit against OpenAI and Microsoft have brought forward significant claims regarding the use of AI scraping and the impact on publishers and content creators. Microsoft director of Applied Science Brent Hecht allegedly made statements in internal memos suggesting that AI scraping represents "the largest theft of labor in human history" and described it as "the largest theft of labor in human history." Further documentation indicated that content created by users was utilized without compensation. Simultaneously, the leadership at OpenAI expressed severe concerns regarding the technology’s potential impact, with the head of ChatGPT, Nick Turley, branding the chatbot an "existential threat" to publishers, asserting that AI is largely substitutive and will become increasingly so as it improves. Internal data revealed that the proliferation of large language models impacted established platforms, as the software giant’s own data indicated that Copilot experienced a ninety-three percent drop in click-through rates for The New York Times when compared to Bing search. Another memo from the Applied Science director described this phenomenon as a "doom loop," warning that it would negatively affect both model performance and the entire web simultaneously. This context is crucial as the legal dispute centers on whether the use of published material for training models constitutes fair use. AI companies contend that scraping the internet for data is fair use, drawing upon legal definitions that include criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, or research, and evaluating factors such as the purpose and character of the use, the nature of the copyrighted work, the amount used relative to the whole, and the effect on the potential market value of the work. However, these internal revelations complicate the fair use defense. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, in a deposition released earlier in the year, stated that any content behind a paywall should be licensed for use in training or grounding models. He further indicated that if he had known that OpenAI had scraped and trained on paywalled information, the company would have compelled OpenAI to retrain its models. The legal arguments thus face scrutiny given the awareness of potential market repercussions among the leadership of both companies. |