Newly unsealed court filings describe internal Microsoft discussions criticizing OpenAI’s data practices, including a Microsoft executive’s characterization of AI scraping as “the largest theft of labor in human history.” The same records also describe how the companies collect and use paywalled content, according to the reporting.
The documents are tied to a broader dispute involving copyright and scraping practices. Multiple outlets report that Microsoft and OpenAI both scraped content from The New York Times, built datasets using that material, and discussed potential effects on publishers. The filings also include internal warnings that such scraping and dataset-building could harm or “gut” the publishing industry.
While all outlets reference the same unsealed materials and the central “theft” quote, they emphasize different implications. TechCrunch and The Washington Post focus more on the quoted language and what it reveals about Microsoft’s private assessment. The New York Times coverage frames the reporting around concern for publishing and how the documents portray internal deliberations rather than public statements.
