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US government sides with OpenAI on issue of training LLMs on copyrighted material: »it is critical for the United States to ‘retain global leadership in artificial intelligence.« (techcrunch.com)
submitted 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) by eicker@lemmy.world to c/technology@lemmy.world
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[-] isleepinahammock@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 points 2 months ago

The NY Times and Pearson, two of the most valuable US publishers, each have market caps of about $10 billion.

Let's say Pearson went after OpenAI. They devote an unlimited legal budget to the fight. OpenAI is hoping to IPO as a trillion dollar company. If Pearson went after OpenAI, rather than fight them in court, a deal could be reached first. If that didn't work, if a deal couldn't be reached, OpenAI could bypass the problem completely:

  1. Spend $5 billion to buy a controlling share of Pearson.
  2. Fire the entire leadership team and install OpenAI minions in their place.
  3. Once they control Pearson, sign a long-term licensing deal with OpenAI with very generous licensing terms and huge early cancellation fees.
  4. Sell the shares back on the market at a (likely slightly reduced) value.

OpenAI would likely have to spend some money on net. The value of Pearson stock would likely be a bit lower after effectively giving away the rights to their works as training data. If signing a durable rights contract the new owners can't escape isn't practical, buying the company and simply holding it indefinitely would also be an option.

this post was submitted on 02 Sep 2026
497 points (99.2% liked)

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