USA Today Sues OpenAI for $250 Million Over AI Training

USA Today Co. and several of its local newspapers filed a lawsuit against OpenAI on Thursday, accusing the artificial intelligence developer of widespread copyright infringement. The publisher is seeking damages exceeding $250 million. According to the legal filing, OpenAI copied "hundreds of thousands" of articles without authorization to train its generative AI models, which the publisher claims has caused "real and continuing" harm to its news outlets.

The lawsuit, which includes local publications such as The Tennessean, Indy Star, The Columbus Dispatch, and The Oklahoman, argues that OpenAI built its business on the backs of stolen content. The complaint alleges that the tech firm never requested permission to use the publisher's work, instead taking the material to construct commercial products now valued at hundreds of billions of dollars. The lawsuit asserts that "OpenAI’s commercial success rests on large-scale copyright infringement," highlighting the tension between content creators and AI companies.

This legal action adds to a rapidly growing mountain of copyright litigation targeting OpenAI. The company is already defending itself against similar lawsuits from major media organizations, including The New York Times, The Intercept, CNET owner Ziff Davis, CBC/Radio-Canada, Encyclopaedia Britannica, Merriam-Webster, and The Seattle Times. Additionally, a separate coalition representing nearly 400 local newspapers has also taken legal action against the AI developer.

For AI developers and industry practitioners, this lawsuit underscores the intensifying legal risks associated with training large language models on public web data. As publishers demand hundreds of millions of dollars in compensation, the industry may be forced to shift away from unauthorized scraping toward formal licensing agreements, potentially raising the cost of developing next-generation AI technologies.