According to the department, the benefits of training large language models on existing works outweigh the competitive harm alleged by publishers.
Justice Department attorneys also argued that a ruling against OpenAI could slow technological development and weaken U.S. economic and security interests. They said AI systems can help people in creative and professional fields work more efficiently and can also support national security analysis.
“The entire reason that AI models are rapidly reshaping the economy and national security is that they help people, including those working in creative fields, make things and get things done,” the filing said.
The department added that those benefits can extend to national security because AI systems can help officials analyze factual information contained in published material.
The New York Times sharply criticized the government’s position, saying it favors major AI companies over publishers and other creators. “The Administration is siding with a handful of trillion-dollar AI companies at the expense of the countless American creators whose work they stole,” the newspaper said.
Graham James, a spokesperson for The Times, said AI companies should compensate publishers whose material contributes to their products. “Both AI and creators can thrive — AI companies simply need to pay fairly for the content that makes their products possible, as copyright law requires,” James said.
The Times sued OpenAI in 2023, alleging that the company used its journalism without authorization to build and operate AI systems. The newspaper has argued that OpenAI’s products can reproduce or substitute for its reporting while benefiting from years of investment in original journalism.
Microsoft, an OpenAI partner, is also a defendant in the litigation. OpenAI and Microsoft have denied the claims and maintain that their systems transform source material in ways protected by copyright law.
Other news organizations have joined related litigation, including the New York Daily News, the Chicago Tribune, Ziff Davis and the Center for Investigative Reporting. OpenAI has also faced separate copyright suits from authors who say their books were used in model training without consent.
The Times’ case focuses in part on competition. In its complaint, the publisher argues that AI companies are using its journalism to create products that can compete with or replace access to the original work without paying for it.
The government’s filing raises the stakes in that dispute by tying the legal question to national policy. Stanley Woodward Jr., the Justice Department’s associate attorney general, described the submission as a “historic statement of interest” and said President Trump has made AI leadership a priority for national security and economic growth.
The case is moving toward a key procedural stage, with both sides given until Friday to submit motions for summary judgment. A ruling could help shape how courts apply existing copyright law to AI model training, an area where legal precedent remains limited.
This analysis is based on reporting from ABC News.
Image courtesy of U.S. Department of Justice.
This article was generated with AI assistance and reviewed for accuracy and quality.
