Microsoft exec called AI scraping ‘the largest theft of labor in human history,’ new unredacted filings reveal
- ID
- 25680
- Status
- summarized
- Published
- 18 Sep 2026, 3:46 AM
- Fetched
- 18 Sep 2026, 4:01 AM
- Provider
- TechCrunch
- Category
- technology
- Original URL
- https://techcrunch.com/2026/09/17/microsoft-exec-called-ai-scraping-the-largest-theft-of-labor-in-human-history-new-unredacted-filings-reveal/
- Source URL
- https://techcrunch.com/feed/
Summary
- Score
- 6.5
- Created
- 18 Sep 2026, 4:02 AM
- Tags
- Audience
- developersai_ml_learnerssaas_founders
What happened
Newly unredacted filings in the New York Times copyright lawsuit against OpenAI and Microsoft reveal a top Microsoft executive privately called AI scraping 'the largest theft of labor in human history,' while OpenAI leadership acknowledged its models posed an 'existential threat' to publishers. The filings also allege the companies bypassed paywalls, mass-scraped content, and stripped copyright notices from training data—claims that undercut their fair use defense.
Why it matters
If you train or fine-tune AI on scraped web content, these admissions could reshape what counts as legally defensible. Founders and developers building AI products in Malaysia should assume stricter scrutiny on training data provenance and consider licensing or synthetic data strategies now rather than relying on fair use arguments that US courts may narrow.
Discussion angle
What does this mean for Malaysian startups using scraped or third-party data to train models—should they treat copyright clearance as a funding due diligence item now?