USA Today Co. and several local newspapers it owns have filed a copyright lawsuit against OpenAI. The publisher alleges that OpenAI copied “hundreds of thousands” of articles to train its AI models and is seeking damages of more than $250 million.
What the publisher alleges
The lawsuit says OpenAI used the outlets’ content without asking permission. It describes the alleged use as causing “real and continuing” harm to the publisher and its newspapers.
USA Today Co. also argues that OpenAI’s commercial success rests on large-scale copyright infringement. The filing alleges that the company took USA Today’s content to build products worth hundreds of billions of dollars.
These are claims made by the publisher in its lawsuit. The supplied report does not include a response from OpenAI: the company had not immediately responded to The Verge’s request for comment.
Local newspapers are part of the case
The case includes USA Today Co. and a number of local outlets owned by the company. Among those named in the report are The Tennessean, Indy Star, The Columbus Dispatch and The Oklahoman, alongside several other local newspapers.
The inclusion of local newspapers means the dispute concerns a group of publications, rather than only the USA Today name. The publisher’s central allegation is that articles from these outlets were copied for AI training without authorization.
A wider wave of AI copyright lawsuits
The suit joins a growing set of copyright cases against OpenAI described in the report. Other plaintiffs include The New York Times, The Intercept, CNET owner Ziff Davis, CBC/Radio-Canada, Encyclopaedia Britannica, Merriam-Webster and The Seattle Times.
A coalition of nearly 400 local newspapers has also filed legal action. The list points to disputes involving publishers of different sizes and kinds, including national newspapers, reference publishers, broadcasters and local news organizations.
For publishers, these cases raise questions about whether their work can be used to develop commercial AI products without permission. USA Today Co.’s filing connects its allegation of unauthorized use to harm it says its outlets continue to experience, while seeking financial damages.
What happens next
The available report describes the claims and the requested damages, but does not provide a ruling or explain how the case will proceed. The allegations remain the publisher’s position in the lawsuit.
OpenAI’s response could not be included because the company had not immediately commented to The Verge. For now, the case adds another publisher-led challenge to the use of copyrighted material in AI training.