Unsealed filings show Microsoft called AI data scraping 'the largest theft of labor' while both firms used paywalled Times content

Details

Newly unsealed court filings reveal that Microsoft privately described AI data-gathering practices as "the largest theft of labor in human history."

The filings indicate that both Microsoft and OpenAI scraped content behind the paywall of the Times and used that material to build datasets.

The documents also contain internal warnings that such data-collection and usage practices would deal a heavy blow to publishers. Those warnings form part of the arguments reflected in the unsealed court files.

TechCrunch reported on the release of these documents and cited the material from the unsealed filings, which detail how the companies handled paywalled content and how those actions were viewed internally.

The disclosures emerged as part of court proceedings in which the filings were recently made public. They shed light on internal assessments and perspectives regarding large technology companies’ data practices.

This article limits itself to the facts presented in the unsealed court documents as reported by TechCrunch and does not introduce additional details beyond that source.