USA Today sues OpenAI seeking over $250 million in damages

By Splitfeed EditorialLast updated Oct 8, 2026, 18:20 UTC

On October 8, 2026, USA Today Co. and a group of local newspapers it owns filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against OpenAI, seeking damages exceeding $250 million. The filing, first reported by Reuters and later covered by Forbes, The Verge, and Bloomberg Law, alleges that OpenAI copied hundreds of thousands of articles from the publisher's outlets without authorization or compensation to train its AI models. The complaint states that this unauthorized use has caused real and continuing harm to the plaintiff newspapers.

The case sits within a broader pattern of publishers taking legal action against OpenAI over its training data practices. The core legal question, one that courts have not yet definitively resolved, is whether scraping and using published articles to train a commercial AI model constitutes copyright infringement or falls under fair use doctrines. The scale of the alleged copying, hundreds of thousands of articles, and the size of the damages sought make this filing notable even against that backdrop. The outcome could influence how AI companies acquire training data and whether licensing deals with publishers become a legal necessity rather than a business choice.

Because no reactions from the Pro-AI, Anti-AI, or Middle Ground camps had been published at the time of filing, what each would typically argue can only be anticipated. Pro-AI voices would likely contend that training on publicly available text is transformative and does not substitute for the original articles, placing it within fair use. Anti-AI voices would be expected to argue that OpenAI profited commercially from journalism it never paid for, undermining the economic foundation of news publishing. A middle ground position would probably call for structured licensing frameworks that allow AI development to continue while ensuring publishers receive compensation, treating the lawsuit as evidence that voluntary agreements have failed to keep pace with the technology.

The most immediate thing to watch is OpenAI's formal legal response to the complaint, which will indicate whether the company plans to contest the copyright claims outright, argue fair use, or pursue a settlement. Any court ruling on motions to dismiss would also help clarify how existing copyright law applies to AI training data, a question with consequences well beyond this single case.