The New York Times (NYT) CEO Meredith Kopit Levien said on June 22, 2026, at an event in Cannes that the "stakes are really high" in the company's copyright lawsuit against OpenAI and Microsoft over the unauthorized use of its articles to train ChatGPT, reaffirming her focus on enforcing intellectual property (IP) rights.
June 2026 · The New York Times Company
"The Stakes Are Really High": NYT vs. OpenAI Heads Toward a Defining Verdict
A landmark copyright suit over millions of articles used to train GPT models could reshape how AI is built — and how publishers earn. As of 2026, no trial date is set, and it may slip to 2027.
$150K
Max statutory damages per work for willful infringement
20M
De-identified ChatGPT logs OpenAI was ordered to produce
Billions
Potential total damages sought by the NYT
A Comparable AI-Copyright Settlement
Anthropic settled Bartz v. Anthropic — a possible benchmark for the scale at stake.
$1.5B
Anthropic settlement
A $1.5B settlement is 3× a half-billion benchmark — a signal of how costly an adverse ruling could be.
How the Case Got Here
Dec 2023
NYT files suit against OpenAI & Microsoft in SDNY
Apr 2024
Amended complaint filed
Mar–Apr 2025
Most of OpenAI's motion to dismiss denied
Nov 2025–Jan 2026
Order to produce 20M ChatGPT logs, upheld by Judge Stein
Apr 2026
Summary judgment briefing completed — ongoing
NYT's claim
Millions of articles used without permission to train GPT models — direct & contributory infringement plus DMCA violations. Seeks damages and destruction of the offending models and datasets.
OpenAI's defense
Training is "transformative fair use." Verbatim "regurgitation" is a rare bug driven by adversarial prompting — not a feature. Appealing the log-production order as a privacy violation.
Why it matters
A ruling here could set precedent for generative AI and copyright — touching everything from how models are built to publishers' subscription, advertising and licensing revenue.
Dual strategy: sues Perplexity, licenses to Amazon (May 2025)
Parallel cases: Authors Guild, Bartz v. Anthropic
Trial may slip to late 2026 or 2027
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