Microsoft executive privately labeled AI training scraping "largest theft of labor in human history"; internal docs show OpenAI, Microsoft bypassed paywalls, stripped copyright notices, warned models pose existential threat to publishers whose work trained them.

Microsoft exec called AI scraping ‘the largest theft of labor in human history,' new unredacted filings reveal | TechCrunch

New unredacted information in the copyright lawsuit The New York Times brought against OpenAI and Microsoft three years ago reveals an admission that AI scraping was tantamount to theft, and that AI products pose a major threat to publications. Per the lawsuit, a top Microsoft executive privately described the companies’ AI training practices as “theft,” and OpenAI’s own leadership said its AI models posed an “existential threat” to the publishers and journalists whose work trained them. The uns...