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The New York Times filed a lawsuit against Microsoft and OpenAI on Wednesday, accusing them of copyright infringement through their AI-driven chatbots.

The newspaper argues that millions of its copyrighted articles were unlawfully utilized for training OpenAI’s ‘ChatGPT’ and Microsoft’s Bing Chat, now ‘Copilot,’ potentially setting a precedent in the burgeoning realm of AI-related legal disputes.

The lawsuit in the Southern District of New York argues that both companies sought to capitalize on The Times’s ‘extensive journalistic investment’ by creating competitive products without authorization or compensation. The complaint doesn’t put a figure on the alleged damages but implies they could run into billions of dollars. It further demands the removal of any training data derived from The Times’s copyrighted content.

Efforts to resolve the matter outside of court seem to have failed. The Times had previously approached Microsoft and OpenAI in April to discuss intellectual property concerns and explore potential agreements. However, the discussions didn’t yield a resolution, leading to the current legal action. The case lists Microsoft, OpenAI, and related corporate entities as defendants.