What happened
The Trump administration filed a court document supporting OpenAI in the New York Times’ copyright lawsuit, arguing that training large language models on written works is highly transformative and can qualify as fair use. The New York Times disputes that position.
Free Malaysia Today, citing AFP, reported that the administration sided with OpenAI in a court document filed Tuesday. The New York Times sued OpenAI and Microsoft in late 2023, alleging that millions of its articles were used to train powerful AI models without permission.
The Justice Department’s 20-page filing reportedly said model training on written works is “exceedingly transformative” and should benefit from the fair-use exception. It said limiting such training would hinder scientific and creative progress, US prosperity and economic mobility.
The New York Times, through spokesman Graham James, said the government was siding with trillion-dollar AI companies and that allowing content to be used without permission or compensation could undermine human-created media. Associate Attorney General Stanley Woodward separately said AI dominance is critical to national security, prosperity and economic mobility.
The report also cited a July settlement involving Anthropic and authors, in which a judge found some uses of books to train Claude transformative enough to qualify as fair use while rejecting other uses involving pirated material. It said publishers including Hachette, Cengage, Elsevier and Turow also sued Meta in May.
Source details: freemalaysiatoday.com ↗
Why it matters
The filing could influence a major legal dispute over whether AI companies may train models on copyrighted material without permission or payment. The Justice Department’s position also links copyright policy to US competitiveness and national security. The source reports the government’s arguments and the Times’ response, but AI Understanding has not independently reviewed the filing or verified the legal claims.
Free Malaysia Today, citing AFP, reported that the Justice Department said the creative possibilities and public benefits of large-language-model training outweigh competitive harm. It also argued that the Times’ interpretation of copyright law could create an anticompetitive barrier that benefits established media companies.
The dispute has implications beyond OpenAI and the Times. Publishers, musicians and artists are pursuing lawsuits or licensing agreements over the use of their work in generative-AI training. A decision could affect how companies source training data and how creators seek compensation.
The government’s argument is not a ruling. The source does not establish whether the court will accept the Justice Department’s fair-use analysis, how the case will be resolved, or whether any eventual decision would apply broadly to other AI systems.
What to watch next
Watch for the court’s treatment of the fair-use question, the New York Times’ response, and whether the case produces guidance affecting AI training data and licensing practices. The source does not report access conditions or pricing because this is a legal and policy development, not a product release.
The immediate issue is how the court weighs transformative use against the economic interests of copyright holders and the alleged use of millions of articles. The source does not provide the court’s schedule or indicate when a ruling is expected.
The Justice Department’s filing may become an important statement of US policy toward AI training, but the report does not establish that it represents a final government-wide rule or binding precedent.
Further developments could include arguments from OpenAI, Microsoft and the Times, judicial findings about the provenance of training data, and any settlement or licensing arrangements. None of those outcomes is confirmed by the source.