The Trump administration's Justice Department has filed a brief in New York federal court supporting OpenAI in a high-profile copyright lawsuit brought by The New York Times, arguing that training AI systems on copyrighted material qualifies as fair use. It is understood to be the first time the US government has intervened on these contested legal questions, which could significantly shape numerous ongoing cases brought against AI firms by news publishers, music companies and film studios. The Times condemned the move, accusing the administration of siding with "trillion-dollar AI companies" over creators whose work it says was misappropriated without payment.

The DoJ's filing leans heavily on national security, warning that restricting AI training could hamper the development of technology used in intelligence analysis and weapons systems, thereby handing an advantage to foreign rivals. It also argues that requiring licensing fees would entrench large legacy media companies and stifle competition, since only well-funded firms could afford such payments. The brief further criticises a prior ruling in a related case against Meta, urging the court hearing the OpenAI dispute not to follow reasoning that treated AI training and its outputs as a single, continuous act of market substitution. The Times is among dozens of publishers suing AI firms over the use of their content in training data, with most cases likely to hinge on the fair use question.