AI training built on fair use looks shaky when the companies' own people call it "astonishing theft"
Internal emails from Microsoft and OpenAI executives call their own training practices 'astonishing theft' — undercutting their fair-use defense in court.
Why it matters
A growing legal and reputational threat to foundational AI training practices. When a company's own leaders admit substitutive use and massive labor extraction in sworn testimony, fair-use claims collapse — and so does the cost model that made current AI economics viable.
The key facts
5 to knowMicrosoft director called the practice 'the largest theft of labor in human history'
OpenAI head of ChatGPT wrote products 'are largely substitutive, period'
Internal emails and sworn testimony undercut OpenAI and Microsoft's fair-use defense
These admissions weaken legal defense in ongoing litigation
Implication: AI training economics may require licensing or new legal framework
Go to the source
The Decoderthe-decoder.com
Publisher excerpt: Internal emails and sworn testimony undercut OpenAI and Microsoft's fair use defense. A Microsoft director described the practice as the "largest theft of labor in human history," while OpenAI's head of ChatGPT wrote that the products "are largely substitutive, period."