2026-09-03 / Signal #2
The U.S. government told a court that training ChatGPT on the New York Times is national security
“Washington just argued that letting ChatGPT read the New York Times is a matter of national defense.”
The Story
The Justice Department filed its first brief in the AI copyright wars, backing OpenAI against the New York Times and other publishers. Training on news articles is fair use, it argued, because the public benefits and U.S. AI dominance outweigh harm to newspapers.
Why It Matters
The state has chosen a side: the model’s right to ingest the press is now framed as a security interest.
Evidence
DOJ statement of interest filed 2 Sep 2026; NYT, Reuters, AP, Politico. Primary URL: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/09/02/technology/justice-department-openai-copyright-suit.html
Sources
Daily scan: 2026-09-03