Het verhaal
On 2 Sep 2026 the Trump administration intervened in The New York Times v. OpenAI (S.D.N.Y., filed Dec 2023) with a ~20-page statement of interest supporting OpenAI’s view that training LLMs on copyrighted text can qualify as fair use. The brief says narrowing fair use to exclude LLM training would be inconsistent with basic copyright principles and would hinder “the Progress of Science and useful Arts,” citing US interest in retaining global AI leadership. It is not a ruling—the court still decides—but statements of interest can sway private litigation. Context: Anthropic’s 2025 book-training ruling treated lawful training favorably while still punishing piracy ($1.5B authors settlement); many outlets meanwhile license content to OpenAI, and the Times has a separate Amazon AI licensing deal.