Conservative groups warn letting AI giants recklessly crawl the internet would jeopardize news retailers, national security: court | Latest Tech News
Conservative groups are urging a Manhattan federal court not to permit AI giants to ‘recklessly crawl the internet’ without compensating news retailers and other content suppliers — warning that it may create an info monopoly and even jeopardize national security, The Post has discovered.
The Center for American Rights, a right-leaning nonprofit law firm targeted on tech and telecom coverage, outlined its argument in an amicus transient submitted in the sweeping copyright infringement lawsuit that pits Sam Altman’s OpenAI against a coalition of news retailers.
“If [superintelligence] is permitted to recklessly crawl the internet, even past paywalls, then we’ve effectively stripped these smaller companies of their competitive advantage and, worse, permanently solidified these SI companies as the ultimate distributors of our information,” the transient says.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman delivers the keynote tackle during the OpenAI builders convention at Fort Mason on Tuesday, Sept. 29, 2026, in San Francisco. Getty Images
“This completely expurgates the incentive for any creator to want to provide free, open content and solidifies SI companies as our sole provider of news and entertainment,” the transient provides.
“That is a terrifying prospect and completely at odds with the Trump Administration’s goals of protecting copyright and a diversity of viewpoints (given Big Tech’s track record of removing politically disfavored content).”
Plaintiffs, including the New York Times and the Chicago Tribune, accuse OpenAI of stealing content without correct credit or compensation to prepare its AI fashions. OpenAI’s attorneys argue that usage of the copyrighted materials is protected under “fair use” doctrine.”
The transient’s cosigners embrace the Article III Project and the Internet Accountability Project, that are both led by Mike Davis, an influential lawyer recognized to have the ear of President Trump; the Bull Moose Project; Consumers For A Strong Economy; and conservative lawyer Joel Thayer.
The Post has reached out to OpenAI for remark.
The transient argues that OpenAI’s interpretation of copyright law would make it even simpler for Chinese corporations to rip off American IP through “distillation” assaults — where an superior AI model is used to prepare a less succesful one without permission and at a fraction of the value and time.
The New York Times is suing OpenAI for copyright infringement. GVN via Getty Images
Both OpenAI and rival Anthropic have accused Chinese corporations like Z.AI and DeepSeek of utilizing unlawful distillation to construct superior fashions at a fraction of the value and time of US rivals.
“If the Court here agrees with OpenAI’s expansive view of fair use, it would not only encourage foreign adversaries to continue this obvious form of IP theft but also give them legal immunity to do so,” the transient says.
The Times first sued OpenAI and key investor Microsoft in December 2023, alleging in Manhattan federal court that the ChatGPT creator had used “millions” of its copyrighted articles to construct AI merchandise that immediately compete with the newspaper.
The lawsuit was later consolidated with related lawsuits introduced by other plaintiffs, including “Game of Thrones” creator George R.R. Martin, comic Sarah Silverman and the New York Daily News. Judge Sidney H. Stein rejected a bid by OpenAI to dismiss the lawsuit in March 2025, but has so far declined to rule on the “fair use” argument.
President Trump not too long ago announced the creation of a “superintelligence” activity pressure. REUTERS
Meanwhile, OpenAI gained a supporter last month in the type of President Trump’s Justice Department, which argued in a court submitting that utilizing copyrighted content to prepare AI fashions doesn’t violate the law.
The DOJ argued that a ruling against OpenAI “would hamper competition in the market for LLMs, because only the largest technology companies might have the capital necessary to pay licensing fees.”
As The Post reported, the DOJ’s submitting shocked might tech coverage consultants as it appeared to contradict the Trump administration’s own AI coverage framework, launched in March, which called on Congress to think about implementing agreements that would require AI corporations to pretty compensate media corporations for their articles.
White House official MIchael Kratsios has warned about the risk of distillation assaults by overseas adversaries. Bloomberg via Getty Images
Indeed, Axios reported that the DOJ’s submitting that “surprised critical agencies,” including the US Patent and Trademark Office and the Copyright Office.
An OpenAI brand, a keyboard, and a robotic hand are seen in an illustration taken Friday, June 5, 2026. REUTERS
The cosigners of this week’s amicus transient specific help for the Trump administration’s “vision for a dominant American future powered by Super Intelligence (SI)” – and they argue that strong copyright protections will help obtain that imaginative and prescient slightly than hinder innovation at US corporations.
“Our goal with the brief is simple – to demonstrate that an America First legal and policy approach values both SI acceleration and IP protection,” the transient’s creator, Center For American Rights President Daniel Suhr, told The Post.
“Especially at a time of rampant AI tech theft by China, America First means protecting our innovative edge through real respect for IP.”
Trump administration officers have publicly signaled they’re involved about the menace of distillation by China and other overseas adversaries.
In April, the White House’s Office of Science and Technology printed a memo accusing “foreign entities, principally based in China” of participating in “deliberate, industrial-scale” theft campaigns.
Pre-trial filings have already contained some bombshell revelations displaying that executives at Microsoft and OpenAI privately fretted at copyright infringement.
One Microsoft director even apprehensive that the tech corporations have been committing probably the “largest theft of labor in human history” to prepare their AI fashions, according to paperwork unsealed last month.
A Microsoft spokesperson said the director’s feedback “reflect one employee’s individual perspective, are not a legal analysis, and do not represent the company’s views.”
“Microsoft’s position is set out in its court filings, which explain why these transformative uses are consistent with copyright law and why Copilot is not a substitute for publishers’ journalism,” the spokesperson added.
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