Trump administration backs OpenAI in New York Times copyright case
The US government has filed a statement in court supporting OpenAI's position that training AI models on copyrighted text qualifies as fair use, intervening in The New York Times' lawsuit against OpenAI and Microsoft seeking billions in damages.
US Department of Justice attorneys this week filed a so-called statement of interest in the case The New York Times brought against OpenAI and Microsoft in December 2023. The newspaper claims the companies unlawfully used its articles to train AI language models and is seeking billions of dollars in damages.
In the filing, government lawyers argue that the Times is attempting to narrow the fair-use doctrine so it would exclude the training of large language models, warning that such an outcome would conflict with fundamental copyright principles and hamper progress in science and the arts. They also state that these models are already helping researchers achieve major breakthroughs across fields, and that restricting their development would harm the US economy.
Using litigation to shape policy
The Trump administration has repeatedly used such statements of interest in private lawsuits to advance its policy goals, with one official calling the approach highly effective. It has previously argued that AI training should be treated as fair use, including that position in its national AI legislative framework. The context is further shaped by Trump's own animosity toward the Times, against which he is separately pursuing a defamation lawsuit.
The outcome of this case could set a precedent affecting other publishers who have raised similar concerns — several organizations have filed comparable lawsuits against AI companies in recent years. In a notable 2025 ruling, a judge found that Anthropic could lawfully train its models on legally purchased books, though the company still faced liability for piracy, leading to a $1.5 billion settlement with authors.
Meanwhile, a number of media companies, including the Associated Press, Axel Springer and Vox Media, have already signed licensing agreements with OpenAI. The New York Times itself struck a licensing deal with Amazon in 2025 allowing its content to be used in Amazon's generative AI tools.
