AI Exec: We May Have Pulled Off “The Largest Theft of Labor in Human History”

Two years ago, Mother Jones sued OpenAI and Microsoft for using copyrighted content from various newsrooms to train their AI models. These documents have now revealed executives' thoughts on rules, the law, and the rights of others. The lawsuit argues that the companies engaged in an "astonishing theft of unprecedented proportions" and possibly "the largest theft of labor in human history."

This content summarizes key excerpts from the lawsuit, which were filed on September 4. Microsoft's director of applied science, Brent Hecht, warned that AI has initiated a "doom loop" that could jeopardize the economic foundations of its suppliers and ultimately make the internet infinitely worse. An internal Microsoft document highlighted that millions of individuals might soon perceive large models as unlawfully "hoovering up" their work without compensation.

OpenAI's policy director, Jack Clark, stated that the company was creating systems that substitute for the labor of those who shape societal culture. Microsoft's research found a 90% decrease in clicks to news articles when using AI search instead of traditional search engines. Microsoft's legal counsel claimed that chatbots are meant to answer questions rather than provide links to content.

A Microsoft expert observed that referral traffic to publishers from Google Search and Google Discover has dropped by at least 30% since the introduction of AI overviews. These AI companies were aware that their actions would harm human content creators and the internet's overall quality. Greg Brockman, co-founder of OpenAI, openly discussed the effectiveness of their products at reproducing publishers' content, even joking about bypassing paywalls.

Despite Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella's statement regarding unauthorized data access, it appears the companies systematically removed data indicating the copyright ownership of the content they scraped.