USA Today Co., together with a group of its regional papers, filed a federal complaint against OpenAI on Thursday, seeking more than $250 million in damages. The suit alleges that OpenAI harvested hundreds of thousands of the publisher’s articles without permission to train its large language models. The complaint claims this unauthorized extraction has directly harmed the newspaper chain.
The filing references a prior Reuters report that first disclosed the alleged copying. According to the complaint, the unlicensed use of the content has caused “real and continuing” injury to USA Today’s outlets, reducing advertising revenue and undermining the value of its journalistic assets. The publisher argues that the damage extends beyond monetary loss to its editorial credibility.
The lawsuit joins a growing list of copyright actions targeting OpenAI. Earlier this year, The New York Times filed a similar claim, and other media entities such as The Intercept, Ziff Davis, CBC/Radio-Canada, Encyclopaedia Britannica, Merriam-Webster, and The Seattle Times have also initiated legal proceedings. A coalition representing nearly four hundred local newspapers has likewise sued the AI firm, indicating a broad industry backlash.
In its complaint, USA Today Co. asserts that OpenAI’s commercial success depends on large-scale infringement of copyrighted material. The document claims the company never sought permission before incorporating the newspaper’s articles, instead “took” the content to develop products it values at hundreds of billions of dollars. This allegation frames the dispute as a fundamental breach of intellectual-property norms.
The filing also names several regional titles that will be directly affected, including The Tennessean, Indy Star, The Columbus Dispatch, and The Oklahoman, among others. By bringing these local outlets into the case, USA Today seeks to demonstrate the widespread impact of OpenAI’s data-gathering practices on community journalism. The plaintiffs argue that the AI model’s training set erodes the economic foundation of smaller newsrooms.
Legal experts note that the outcome of these cases could shape the future of AI training data policies. If courts rule in favor of the publishers, OpenAI may be required to obtain licenses or remove large swaths of copyrighted material from its models. Conversely, a dismissal could reinforce the industry’s current approach to scraping publicly available text for machine learning.