The clash pits the Times’ demand for control and compensation over its journalism against the Trump administration’s view that expansive AI development is a national economic and security imperative. OpenAI and Microsoft now have Washington formally reinforcing their fair-use defense.

The dispute began in December 2023, when The New York Times sued OpenAI and Microsoft, alleging the companies had unlawfully used Times articles to train their systems and seeking billions of dollars in damages.¹ The case has become a central test of whether feeding copyrighted text into large language models is transformative use or unlicensed exploitation.

This week, the Justice Department filed a 20-page statement of interest backing the companies. The government argued that the Times’ preferred interpretation would improperly shut AI training out of fair use: “That result would be inconsistent with basic copyright law principles and severely hamper ‘the Progress of Science and useful Arts.’”²

The administration’s argument goes beyond the courtroom. Its brief says the United States has a strong interest in a “robust and competitive” AI sector and that the country must retain global leadership in the technology.² It also contends that restricting LLM development through a mistaken reading of fair use would impede scientific advances, prosperity and economic mobility.²

For publishers, however, the underlying grievance remains straightforward: AI firms have absorbed vast collections of books, articles and other protected work without permission, while potentially building products that compete for readers’ attention.² The Times lawsuit could therefore shape the bargaining power of news organizations and other rights holders well beyond this one dispute.

The Justice Department’s filing is not a ruling, and the Southern District of New York will decide the case. But the intervention gives OpenAI’s legal position a powerful ally—and turns a copyright fight into a sharper contest over who gets to set the rules for America’s AI future.¹