Microsoft exec called AI scraping the “largest theft of labor in human history”

What's happening

Newly unsealed court filings and internal emails show a Microsoft executive described AI scraping as "the largest theft of labor in human history," and that both Microsoft and OpenAI scraped paywalled New York Times content to build datasets. The documents say employees warned the practice would "gut publishers" and raise the risk of a "doom loop" killing news organizations. Courts have rejected efforts by Microsoft and OpenAI to hide internal documents that admit the companies treated scraping as theft.

Why it's trending

Internal documents were unsealed and made public, exposing blunt language and confirming scraping of paywalled content right now.

SignalNewly emerging, confirmed across 2 independent source types.