USA Today sues OpenAI for copyright infringement over AI training

The New York Times

08/10/2026 16:33

By Blake Brittain
Oct 8 (Reuters) - USA Today Co TDAY.N and several newspapers it owns sued OpenAI in Manhattan federal court on Thursday for allegedly infringing their copyrights by using their content to train its large language models.
The lawsuit said that OpenAI copied hundreds of thousands of the outlets' articles and other materials and used them without permission to train the system behind its popular chatbot ChatGPT
Spokespeople for OpenAI did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the complaint
USA Today's complaint is one of dozens of high-stakes lawsuits filed by copyright owners against tech companies including OpenAI, Anthropic and Meta Platforms for allegedly misusing their work in AI training
Tech companies have argued that their systems make fair use of copyrighted material by transforming it into something new
OpenAI and its largest financial backer, Microsoft MSFT.O, are facing similar claims in Manhattan court from prominent authors and news outlets including the New York Times NYT.N 
USA Today requested damages "in excess of $250 million" and a court order blocking OpenAI's alleged infringement in its Thursday complaint
The case is USA Today Co v. OpenAI Foundation, US District Court for the Southern District of New York, No. 1:26-cv-08892
For USA Today: Steven Lieberman of Rothwell Figg Ernst & Manbeck
For OpenAI: attorney information not yet available
     
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(Reporting by Blake Brittain in Washington)