It feels rather fitting that several days after we launched our AI policy here at the Chronicle, I joined a growing coalition of publishers in a copyright lawsuit against OpenAI and Microsoft.
Our colleagues at the Association of Alternative Newsmedia (of which the Chronicle is a member and I serve on the Board of Directors) and my friends Jason Pramas and John Loftus at the Boston Institute of Nonprofit Journalism put me in touch with attorneys at Platkin LLP, who are representing more than 550 publications across the country. Major regional newspapers, longstanding independent outlets, nonprofit newsrooms, and specialty publications are all signing on to take a stand.
I wanted to take a minute to explain what it’s all about.
Sure, OK, I’m biased. But local journalism like the Chronicle is a public good. Our writers attend concerts and plays, sit through City Council sessions, cultivate leads, and dig into stories that matter to the people who live here. Those writers have earned your trust by being in the trenches. We do Journalism with a capital J, and that work requires time, skill, and significant investment. It is original reporting, protected by copyright law.
OpenAI systematically took millions of these copyrighted news articles and other content produced by publications like ours and used that material to train and build commercial AI products. Willfully. Without permission or compensation.
So while the Chronicle, operating on the thinnest of margins, continued to ensure that our readers had access to trustworthy reporting, OpenAI and Microsoft built incredibly lucrative businesses on the work that we created and paid for.
You might have seen some recent Chronicle merchandise outlining my personal sentiments about AI, although I acknowledge some of this is a fact of life. (I’m writing this in a Google Doc that is using AI to redline all my unnecessary commas, for pity’s sake.) But this lawsuit isn’t about opposing technology or advancements. I think the Human Artistry Campaign put it perfectly earlier this year: Stealing Isn’t Innovation. Left unchecked, this kind of theft will continue to erode local publications already facing countless economic pressures and readership challenges.
It might be an uphill battle to get these companies to play fair, but I’m proud to be, in some small part, holding them accountable. The people and newsrooms who create original reporting should have meaningful protections. I look forward to pursuing our case in court.
This article appears in September 25 • 2026.