Weighing in on a legal question with trillion-dollar stakes, the administration says AI firms don't need to pay for the millions of works they use without permission.
The OpenAI logo is displayed on a laptop screen on May 20, 2026 in Los Angeles, California.
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The Trump administration is siding with AI companies in the nationwide legal battle over AI training, arguing in a first-ever court filing that labs like OpenAI are shielded from lawsuits when they ingest millions of copyrighted works to build their models.
In an advisory brief filed Tuesday (Sept. 1), the Department of Justice urges a federal judge to rule for OpenAI in a lawsuit filed by the New York Times — one of dozens of copyright cases filed by record labels, authors, movie studios and other creators against AI companies.
