WorkSeptember 18, 2026via The Verge AICONFIRMED · 2 SOURCES
OpenAI and Microsoft knew they were starting a ‘doom loop’ for the web
Why it matters
This is a major regulatory and reputational development in the foundational IP/labor dispute that will shape AI policy and practitioner liability for years. Practitioners need to understand the legal and ethical framework they're operating in; enthusiasts are watching a defining test case unfold.
Key signals
- New York Times v. OpenAI/Microsoft court documents unsealed
- Internal Microsoft documentation warned of 'doom loop' damaging the web
- Microsoft Director of Applied Science Brent Hecht characterized data scraping as 'largest theft of labor in human history'
- Internal docs said scraping made 'complete mockery of fair use'
- Microsoft attempting to distance itself from Hecht's statements
- Published September 18, 2026 — ongoing litigation with major implications for training data sourcing
The hook
Unsealed court docs: OpenAI and Microsoft's own teams warned of a 'doom loop' destroying the web through training-data scraping.
Recently unsealed court documents in the New York Times' case against OpenAI and Microsoft are pretty damning. The companies' own documentation warned that it was starting a "doom loop" that would damage the web, characterized its scraping of data to train its models as the "largest theft of labor i…