The New York Times Co. v. Microsoft Corp. and OpenAI
US District Court, S.D. New York (Judge Sidney Stein), consolidated MDL with Daily News, CIR, and authors' cases · 2023-12-27 (filed)
The most-watched news-publisher lawsuit against OpenAI and Microsoft, filed in 2023, is still grinding through discovery. Meanwhile OpenAI has paid other publishers for licences rather than settle with the Times.
What it calls for
- Creator compensation
- Data rights
- Liability
Scope
Single plaintiff (plus consolidated news publishers); seeks damages and destruction of models trained on NYT content
What actually happened
Judge Stein denied most of OpenAI's motion to dismiss on 2025-03-26, letting core infringement claims proceed. OpenAI was ordered to preserve ChatGPT output logs (2025), and in June 2026 the Times amended its complaint to allege Microsoft encouraged the unlicensed use. No trial date, summary-judgment ruling, or settlement as of 2026-09-01 (https://ailawsuittracker.com/cases/new-york-times-v-openai/). Looked for: settlement reports - none; OpenAI has instead signed licensing deals with other publishers (e.g., News Corp, Axel Springer).