NYT lawsuit reveals Microsoft exec called AI scraping 'largest theft of labor in history,' OpenAI head said ChatGPT is an 'existential threat' to publishers

纽约时报诉讼文件披露：微软高管称 AI 抓取是人类历史上最大规模的劳动力盗用

Newly unsealed legal briefs in the New York Times copyright lawsuit against Microsoft and OpenAI reveal blunt internal assessments. A Microsoft AI director wrote in an email that training AI on web content is 'the largest theft of labor in human history.' OpenAI's head of publishing partnerships warned that ChatGPT poses an 'existential threat' to news publishers. The filings, submitted on September 18, 2026, contradict the companies' public fair-use defenses. The post does not disclose when the emails were sent or who received them.

Why it matters: Newly unsealed internal emails in the NYT lawsuit show Microsoft and OpenAI executives privately acknowledging the threat AI scraping poses to creators and publishers, contradicting their public stance. All three HKR axes hit — the contrast and industry impact are strong. Not ...