Unsealed filings in the NYT case against Microsoft and OpenAI describe an AI 'doom loop' for news

SentiSense · Published Sep 17, 2026, 9:19 PM ET · Updated Sep 28, 2026, 2:45 AM ET

Newly unsealed exhibits in The New York Times' 2023 copyright case against Microsoft and OpenAI became public on September 17, 2026, including internal communications in which a Microsoft researcher describes AI-generated news creating a "doom loop" for journalism. The documents also support the Times' allegation that paywalled articles were accessed to train large language models. This is new evidence in an existing case, not a new lawsuit.

A batch of previously sealed exhibits in The New York Times' copyright case against MSFT and OpenAI was unsealed on September 17, 2026, putting internal company communications on the public record for the first time. The underlying lawsuit is not new: the Times filed it in December 2023, and it remains in active litigation. What changed this week is the evidence, not the case.

The most quoted document has a Microsoft researcher describing AI-generated news as creating a "doom loop" for journalism, in which AI summaries absorb the traffic that funds the reporting they summarize, leaving less original reporting for the models to draw on. Related filings put a number on the mechanism, citing a roughly 93% drop in click-through from Bing search results carrying AI answers.

Other unsealed material speaks to the Times' central allegation that paywalled articles were accessed to build training corpora. The filings reference a training dataset of more than 10 million articles, with 91,692 copies attributed to the Times in one dataset. Damages sought have still not been disclosed.

For investors the near-term question is procedural rather than financial. No ruling accompanied the unsealing, and neither Microsoft nor OpenAI faces a payment obligation from it. What the documents may change is settlement posture and the price of content licensing across the sector, which is the channel through which this case would eventually reach earnings. Watch for the court's handling of the fair-use question and for any licensing deals struck while the case is pending.