Microsoft employees raised concerns over OpenAI’s use of millions of news articles and other copyrighted material to train its artificial intelligence models, with one internal document describing it as the potential “largest theft of labor in human history,” according to The New York Times, which cited newly unsealed court documents. The documents, unsealed Thursday, show Microsoft Director of Applied Science Brent Hecht describing the practice as an “astonishing theft of unprecedented proportions” and warning it could create a “doom loop” undermining large language models, and warning OpenAI may have engaged in an “accidental cover-up” while identifying content from The New York Times and other publishers in the lawsuit. Microsoft spokesman Alex Haurek said Hecht’s internal memos did not represent the company’s views. OpenAI executives also expressed concern ChatGPT could divert users from traditional news sources; Nick Turley, who led the team developing ChatGPT, wrote in a June 2023 memo that AI posed an “existential threat” to publishers, and in a February 2024 memo said AI products “will get more and more substitutive as they get better.” An OpenAI engineer acknowledged in a court document that “no matter how prominently we show the links, users won’t click.” Court documents also show OpenAI President Greg Brockman responding “ah nice” after a staffer mentioned developing “a hack” to bypass The New York Times paywall. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said in a deposition that paywalled content