Unsealed NYT case filings: OpenAI/Microsoft executives called AI products "substitutive" for journalism, one director called training "theft"

What happened

On September 17, 2026, a federal judge in Manhattan unsealed previously redacted portions of filings in The New York Times' copyright suit against OpenAI and Microsoft. The unsealed material quotes the companies' own executives and staff describing their AI products as substitutes for journalism, undermining their fair-use defense. Per the Reuters report: OpenAI head of ChatGPT Nick Turley called publishers' situation an "existential threat" from products that are "largely substitutive"; OpenAI co-founder Greg Brockman wrote that LLMs are "excellent at news" and replied "ah nice" when told employees found a "hack" around the Times' paywall; Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella agreed under oath that chatbots have "substituted" going to the underlying source website; and Microsoft's director of applied science Brent Hecht described AI companies "hoovering up" creators' work as "an astonishing theft of unprecedented proportions" (Microsoft said that reflected one employee's perspective, not company views). News outlets including the New York Daily News and seven other papers argue the quotes "eviscerate" the fair-use defense.

Why it matters to creators

Fair-use determinations turn on market substitution (factor four) and the nature of the use. The companies have argued their training is transformative and does not compete with journalism; their own executives' private words say the opposite. This evidence, revealed during discovery in the consolidated MDL before Judge Sidney H. Stein, is now on the record in the lead case and could shape the court's ruling on the summary judgment motions filed September 4.

What is not yet known

How the court will weigh the unsealed quotes against the companies' formal filings; whether any other unsealed materials will surface; Microsoft's full response to the Hecht characterization.