The Department of Justice filed a statement in the Southern District of New York backing OpenAI and Microsoft against the New York Times. Multiple accounts describe the brief as stating that training AI models on copyrighted material does not violate copyright law and that treating it as infringement would harm science, prosperity, and national security. Mike Isaac of the Times reported the filing and noted the paper's vigorous pushback. Other observers called the move Washington's first formal intervention in ongoing AI copyright cases.