Microsoft Director Privately Admitted AI Was the “Largest Theft of Labor in Human History,” Unsealed Court Documents Show
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Unsealed court documents reveal that Microsoft director of applied science Brent Hecht and OpenAI cofounder and president Greg Brockman have privately confessed to the "largest theft of labor in human history" in the ongoing legal dispute between the New York Times and the AI companies. The motion filed by the NYT documents the executives' statements, which call the AI industry's foundation of training models on vast amounts of copyright material "an astonishing theft of unprecedented proportions."
Hecht describes the AI buildout as the "largest theft of labor in human history," arguing that it constitutes a "mockery of the idea of 'fair use.'" Brockman emphasizes that publishers face an "existential threat" from generative AI, which will increasingly substitute human journalists as the technology improves. These admissions challenge any claim to fair use, a point that Hecht supports.
The case, initiated in 2023, alleges that the AI labs copied millions of the NYT's copyrighted articles without permission to create competing commercial products. The presiding judge is expected to decide by 2027 whether the case will proceed to trial.
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- Microsoft exec called AI scraping ‘the largest theft of labor in human history,’ new unredacted filings reveal techcrunch.com
- NYT court filing: ChatGPT's head wrote that publishers face an "existential threat" and a Microsoft executive called AI training "an astonishing theft" (Financial Times) ft.com
