TechCrunch reports that in The New York Times' lawsuit against OpenAI, the Trump administration filed an about 20-page brief defending the ChatGPT maker's unlicensed use of copyrighted works to train LLMs, arguing the U.S. must retain global AI leadership and that a misunderstood fair-use doctrine would hinder progress and prosperity. The brief is not a ruling—the case remains in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York—but the government's stance could still weigh on fair-use arguments. The piece also notes last year's Anthropic writers settlement (~$1.5B) centered on pirated shadow libraries rather than training itself being ruled unlawful.

Key Takeaways

  • ✓U.S. government brief backs OpenAI's training-as-fair-use stance in the NYT suit
  • ✓Not a ruling, but may influence the court's fair-use analysis
  • ✓Contrast: Anthropic's large settlement was about pirated libraries, not training per se
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