News Outlets Sue OpenAI; Anthropic Faces Class Action Over AI Training Data

The Seattle Times and Newsday have filed lawsuits against OpenAI and Microsoft, alleging that their AI models were trained on copyrighted journalistic content without permission. The news organizations claim that OpenAI's models not only used their reporting for training but also reproduce passages from their articles in response to user queries.

These lawsuits follow a pattern of legal challenges against AI companies for copyright infringement. Earlier, authors involved in a class-action lawsuit against Anthropic AI are set to receive payouts by November 15, 2026, with an initial net amount of $2,200 per work. However, the final distribution could be affected by ongoing claims, allocation disputes, and appeals, as authors express concerns that publishers and agents might be seeking a disproportionate share of the settlement funds. Additionally, a new class action lawsuit questions whether Anthropic misled power users regarding the benefits of its top-tier subscription.