DOJ files brief backing OpenAI fair-use argument in NYT copyright suit

The U.S. Department of Justice filed a statement of interest in the OpenAI vs. New York Times copyright lawsuit, arguing that training large language models on copyrighted text qualifies as fair use. The DOJ characterized LLM training as transformative because models learn statistical relationships rather than reproduce content for the same purpose as the original. The filing is advisory and not binding on the court. The DOJ distinguished three separate acts, acquiring training data, training on it, and generating outputs, and focused its fair-use argument specifically on the training stage, leaving open separate copyright questions around data acquisition methods and specific outputs that reproduce protected passages. The administration also warned that broad copyright liability or blanket licensing requirements could disadvantage U.S. AI developers relative to foreign competitors, framing this as a national security concern.