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Microsoft exec called AI scraping ‘the largest theft of labor in human history,’ new unredacted filings reveal

Written and edited by the WorldPing NewsdeskPublished Updated Original reporting: TechCrunch

What happened

Newly unsealed court filings show Microsoft privately called OpenAI's data practices "theft" while both companies scraped paywalled Times content, built datasets from it, and warned internally it would gut publishers.

Key facts

  • Reported by TechCrunch and published Thu, 17 Sep 2026 19:46:08 UTC.

Why it matters

Platform, chip and AI decisions set the terms other companies have to build on, so a single announcement here tends to ripple through products, supply chains and regulation.

What to watch next

  • Availability, pricing and rollout regions
  • Independent testing or verification of the claims made
  • Responses from regulators and competing platforms

Coverage timeline

When each newsroom published on this story, oldest first — all times UTC.

  1. Microsoft AI CEO says AI threats are real, and Anthropic is making it worse

  2. Microsoft exec called AI scraping ‘the largest theft of labor in human history,’ new unredacted filings reveal

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

Sources

The original report was published by TechCrunch. WorldPing does not claim that reporting — this page summarises and contextualises it.

Read the full report at TechCrunch

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