AI leaders knew their products could undermine the publishers they depend on
AI’s reliance on original content could become a key argument in fight for licensing revenue.
The New York Times’ legal brief quotes OpenAI’s head of ChatGPT calling AI an “existential threat” to publishers and Microsoft’s director of applied science warning of harm to AI’s own content supply, TechCrunch reports. It also cites Microsoft data showing click-through rates to the Times’ domain up to 93% lower in Copilot than in conventional Bing search. These internal warnings and figures could bolster publishers’ case for licensing payments that fund future reporting, not just compensate for past copying.