Lawyers for the newspaper are exploring whether to sue OpenAI to protect the intellectual property rights associated with its reporting, according to two people with direct knowledge of the discussions.

For weeks, The Times and the maker of ChatGPT have been locked in tense negotiations over reaching a licensing deal in which OpenAI would pay The Times for incorporating its stories in the tech company’s AI tools, but the discussions have become so contentious that the paper is now considering legal action.

[These AI engines seem to be little more than content regurgitators, and often non-discretionary regurgitators at that. The NY Times is understandably opposed to the wholesale commodification of their product by someone else, and they’re not alone. Again, one has to wonder what value this form of AI provides anyway, since users can simply find the same information from original sources without AI on their own. — Ed]