Microsoft says virtually nobody was grabbing NYT articles through its chatbot

Summary

Microsoft argued in court filings that Copilot rarely outputs verbatim text from copyrighted news articles or books. The company cited analysis of 8.2 million chat logs to support its fair use defense against lawsuits from The New York Times, Authors Guild, and other publishers.

Key Takeaways

1. Microsoft’s Copilot rarely reproduces even full sentences from news articles and books, let alone substantive chunks that could substitute for the original, the company says in new legal filings as it fights copyright claims from publishers including The New York Times and book authors.
2. As part of the lawsuit’s discovery, Microsoft provided 8.2 million Copilot chat logs to an expert hired by news publishers.
3. Microsoft submitted its filing on Friday as it argues for the judge to issue a summary judgement, which would end the case at an early stage.

Statement Breakdown

• Claimed Facts: 70% of statements the article presents as facts
• Opinions: 20% of statements classified as editorial or subjective
• Claims: 10% of statements surfaced for additional reader evaluation

Credibility & Bias Reasoning

Credibility assessment: The reporting accurately covers legal filings and discovery data submitted in federal court. It clearly attributes claims to court documents and Microsoft arguments while noting that plaintiffs did not immediately respond to comment requests. The piece provides context on the ongoing copyright dispute between artificial intelligence developers and content creators.

Bias assessment: Legal Reporting Perspective. The article focuses primarily on Microsoft's legal motion and data arguments for summary judgment. It maintains neutral journalistic distance by attributing claims directly to the court filings and noting the arguments raised by the publishers and authors. The overall tone remains objective and factual without taking an overt editorial stance.

Note: This article reports data and arguments presented by Microsoft in its legal defense against copyright lawsuits.

Credibility flag: Legal Defense Claims

Claimed Facts (5)

• This statement describes a concrete step taken during the discovery phase of the lawsuit.
• This reports specific quantitative findings cited from the legal filings.
• This provides a specific factual metric documented by an expert witness in the filing.
• This describes an objective procedural milestone in the federal court proceedings.
• This records a verifiable legal motion filed by Microsoft's legal team.

Opinions (5)

• This represents Microsoft's legal interpretation and subjective framing of the dataset numbers.
• This expresses a subjective legal argument regarding the transformative nature of generative AI.
• This quote conveys Microsoft's evaluative opinion on how text overlap impacts fair use doctrine.
• This reflects the plaintiffs' subjective allegations regarding commercial competition and content replication.
• This is a conditional forecast regarding procedural outcomes depending on judicial discretion.

Claims (5)

• This claim is an adversarial legal defense assertion that minimizes the extent of copyright reproduction.
• The criteria and filtering methodology for selecting these specific logs represent an unverified claim by the defendant.
• This selective metric is presented by Microsoft without public access to the underlying study context.
• This assertion is drawn directly from an interested party's legal filing and lacks independent verification.
• This passing mention reflects a political intervention in support of artificial intelligence developers.

Key Sources

• Lauren Feiner — Senior Policy Reporter, The Verge
• Microsoft — Defendant and Technology Corporation
• The New York Times — News Organization and Plaintiff
• Center for Investigative Reporting — Investigative Journalism Nonprofit and Plaintiff
• Authors Guild — Writers Advocacy Organization and Plaintiff