‘Doom Loop’: OpenAI and Microsoft Admit LLMs Is Destroying the Web, Built on Theft

2026-09-21 | Source: Mastodon | Original article

A court filing uncovered by Digital Content Next reveals OpenAI and Microsoft acknowledge their language models are harming the web and rely on stolen content.

A court filing obtained by Jason Kint, chief executive of the trade group Digital Content Next, reveals that Microsoft’s own internal analysis has labeled the rapid expansion of large‑language models as a “doom loop” that is eroding the web. The unredacted document, cited in the filing, warns that the generative‑AI products built by Microsoft and its partner OpenAI are “killing the entire web” by scraping vast amounts of online content to train models. The memo goes further, describing the data‑harvesting process as “the largest theft of labor in human history,” and suggesting that the practice could undermine the economic foundations of digital publishing. The revelation matters because it provides concrete evidence that the companies developing the most powerful AI systems were aware of the destructive feedback loop their technology creates. By pulling content from countless sites, the models reduce traffic and ad revenue for the original publishers, while simultaneously using that same material to improve the very services that compete with them. The admission fuels ongoing copyright disputes and could sharpen regulatory focus on how AI firms source training data. It also raises fresh questions for legislators and industry bodies about whether existing intellectual‑property frameworks can accommodate the scale of automated content extraction. What to watch next are the legal and policy responses. The filing is likely to be cited in the wave of copyright lawsuits targeting AI developers, and regulators in the EU, US and elsewhere may use it to justify stricter data‑use rules. Both OpenAI and Microsoft have yet to comment publicly, but industry observers expect statements on how the companies will mitigate the “doom loop” and whether they will alter their data‑collection practices. The next few weeks could see decisive moves that shape the balance between AI innovation and the sustainability of the web’s content ecosystem.

Sources

Back to AIPULSEN