Microsoft director called AI scraping ‘the largest theft of labor in human history,’ while OpenAI head brands ChatGPT an ‘existential threat’ to publishers — revelations come from legal briefs filed in NYT lawsuit
- ID
- 25908
- Status
- summarized
- Published
- 18 Sep 2026, 8:49 PM
- Fetched
- 18 Sep 2026, 9:04 PM
- Provider
- Tom's Hardware
- Category
- technology
- Original URL
- https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/artificial-intelligence/microsoft-director-called-ai-scraping-the-largest-theft-of-labor-in-human-history-while-openai-head-brands-chatgpt-an-existential-threat-to-publishers-revelations-come-from-legal-briefs-filed-in-nyt-lawsuit
- Source URL
- https://www.tomshardware.com/feeds/all
Summary
- Score
- 6.5
- Created
- 18 Sep 2026, 9:05 PM
- Tags
- Audience
- developersai_ml_learnerssaas_founders
What happened
Legal briefs filed in the NYT lawsuit against AI companies reveal that a Microsoft director internally called AI scraping 'the largest theft of labor in human history,' while an OpenAI head described ChatGPT as an 'existential threat' to publishers. These are admissions from inside the companies building the tools, not outside critics.
Why it matters
If you are building products that scrape, train on, or republish third-party content using AI, these internal admissions from the vendors themselves signal real legal exposure that is unlikely to shrink soon. Founders and developers should audit which data sources their pipelines depend on and whether licensing or opt-out mechanisms are in place before scaling.
Discussion angle
What does it mean for builders when the platforms we depend on (OpenAI, Microsoft) have internally acknowledged the harm their products cause — and how should that change our risk calculus when choosing data sources or building on their APIs?