The Trump administration has intervened in the copyright lawsuit between The New York Times and OpenAI, siding with the AI company. In a statement of interest filed with the Manhattan judge handling the case, the Department of Justice argued that a victory for the Times would threaten national security and impose heavy costs on smaller news outlets.
The filing frames the legal dispute as having stakes beyond the two parties. According to the administration, an outcome favoring the Times could restrict AI development in ways that undermine national security, while also making it harder for smaller publishers to compete. The argument inserts the executive branch into a case that is primarily about whether OpenAI's use of copyrighted news content to train its models violates fair use.
Neither the Times nor OpenAI has publicly responded to the filing in the source report. The case remains ongoing, and the administration's intervention is the latest development in a legal battle that has drawn wide attention from both the tech and publishing industries.