The Trump administration has filed a statement of interest in The New York Times' copyright lawsuit against OpenAI, backing the AI company's argument that training large language models on copyrighted material qualifies as fair use. The intervention marks a significant escalation, as it puts the weight of the US government behind AI developers in a case that could set precedent for how copyright law applies to AI training across the industry, at a time when media outlets are increasingly challenging tech firms over the use of their content.

The lawsuit, filed by the Times in December 2023, accuses OpenAI and Microsoft of unlawfully using its articles to train AI systems and seeks billions of dollars in damages. In its filing this week, the administration argued that narrowing fair-use doctrine to exclude LLM training would hamper scientific progress and economic growth, echoing its earlier stance in the National AI Legislative Framework. The move follows a pattern of the administration using statements of interest to shape policy through litigation, and comes as Trump separately pursues a defamation case against the Times. It also follows a 2025 ruling that found Anthropic could lawfully train on purchased books, though it faced a $1.5 billion settlement over pirated material, while other outlets such as the Associated Press and Axel Springer have instead struck licensing deals with OpenAI.