§ Claim under review · Policy
"Microsoft's director of applied science, Brent Hecht, was quoted in unsealed court documents in the NYT v. OpenAI/Microsoft lawsuit calling the AI industry's buildout the 'largest theft of labor in human history'"
Verdict
Mostly accurate
Confidence
MediumSummary
This one largely holds up. A court brief filed by The New York Times and other news publishers was unsealed on September 17, 2026, and it quotes Brent Hecht, Microsoft's director of applied science, using the phrase "largest theft of labor in human history" about the mass scraping of web content to train AI models. That has been reported by several independent outlets including the Washington Post and TechCrunch, and Microsoft has responded on the record rather than denying the words exist. Two things are worth knowing. First, the neighboring quote about "an astonishing theft of unprecedented proportions" was, per the brief, a prediction that millions of people would soon see AI training that way, not a flat confession, and some outlets report the "labor" phrase in hedged form as well. Second, the viral post credits OpenAI president Greg Brockman with saying AI products are "largely substitutive" and an "existential threat" to publishers, but those words belong to Nick Turley, OpenAI's head of ChatGPT. Microsoft says Hecht's writings were one employee's personal view and not company policy, and these excerpts were selected by the opposing side in a case that has not been decided.
The readings
key figures from the evidencedate the summary judgment brief was unsealed
case docket number for NYT v. Microsoft/OpenAI
extension requested by OpenAI/Microsoft to file opposition brief
Why this verdict
Evidence
Multiple independent, editorially accountable outlets that reviewed the unsealed filings report the same thing: a summary judgment brief filed by The New York Times and other news plaintiffs, unsealed on September 17, 2026, quotes Brent Hecht, Microsoft's director of Applied Science, in connection with the phrase "largest theft of labor in human history." The Washington Post reports that a Microsoft executive called the training of artificial intelligence models the "largest theft of labor in human history," according to a legal brief filed by the New York Times and unsealed Thursday, and that in another instance the same executive called it "an astonishing theft of unprecedented proportions," with the comments coming from Brent Hecht, Microsoft's director of applied science.
TechCrunch reports that in a January 2023 internal memo, Hecht called it "an astonishing theft of unprecedented proportions" and "the largest theft of labor in human history."
The fuller sentence behind the "astonishing theft" phrase, as quoted from the brief, is a prediction about public perception rather than a flat confession. Tom's Hardware reports the brief cited a January 2023 memo by Hecht in which he said, "Millions of people around the world will soon consider large models 'hoovering up' all their work to be an astonishing theft of unprecedented proportions," and also called it "the largest theft of labor in human history." Several outlets summarizing the brief render the labor phrase in hedged form. The Daily Caller News Foundation writes that the brief cites a document describing the practice as potentially the "largest theft of labor in human history," and says Hecht recognized that a fair use win for the companies would arguably "make a complete mockery of the idea of 'fair use.'"
Microsoft has responded on the record and disputes the characterization that this is a company admission. A Microsoft spokesperson said Hecht's comments "reflect one employee's individual perspective, are not a legal analysis, and do not represent the company's views."
The quotes are excerpts selected by an adversarial party. Engadget notes that only snippets from the documents were made public without any context around them, and that Microsoft's position is set out in its court filings.
On the post's other named quote, the record points to a different person than the post says. Digiday reports that OpenAI's head of ChatGPT Nick Turley wrote that publishers face an "existential threat" from OpenAI's products, which, he said, "are largely substitutive, period" and "will get more and more substitutive as they get better."
The New York Times reports that in a June 2023 memo, Nick Turley, who led the team developing ChatGPT, wrote that AI posed an "existential threat" to publishers, and that in February 2024 he wrote that AI products "will get more and more substitutive as they get better."
Findings
✓ What's accurate 6
- Brent Hecht is Microsoft's director of Applied Science, and he is identified that way in the brief and across all reporting.
- A brief in the NYT v. Microsoft and OpenAI case was unsealed on September 17, 2026, and it quotes Hecht.
- The phrase "largest theft of labor in human history" appears in the brief and is attributed there to Hecht's January 2023 internal memo. Two of the strongest outlets, the Washington Post and the Times itself, report it in that flat form.
- The related phrase "an astonishing theft of unprecedented proportions" is also attributed to Hecht in the same memo.
- The subject matter is correct in substance: Hecht was writing about mass scraping of web content to train large language models, which is the conduct at the center of the case.
- The post's supporting quote about fair use is also real. Reporting confirms the brief quotes Hecht writing that a defense win would arguably "make a complete mockery of the idea of fair use."
≈ What's misleading 6
- **Quote manipulation:** The post states that "top AI executives have admitted that training AI models required 'an astonishing theft of unprecedented proportions.'" The sentence as quoted from the brief is a forecast about how the public will react, not an admission of fact: Hecht wrote that millions of people will soon consider large models hoovering up their work to be such a theft. Converting a prediction about perception into a confession changes the epistemic status of the statement, which is precisely what makes it sound like a smoking gun.
- **Omitted qualifier:** Several outlets summarizing the brief render the labor phrase as "potentially" or "could be" the largest theft of labor in human history, and at least one describes it as Microsoft employees debating whether the practice amounted to that. The claim presents it as a flat declarative characterization. Reporting is genuinely split on this point, and the post picked the strongest available rendering without noting the hedge.
- **Misattribution:** The post attributes the "existential threat" and "largely substitutive, period" quotes to OpenAI cofounder and president Greg Brockman. The brief and the reporting attribute those words to Nick Turley, OpenAI's head of ChatGPT, from memos dated June 2023 and February 2024. Brockman appears in the filing for separate material. As attributed, this secondary element of the post is false.
- **Marketing as evidence, inverted:** The post frames an adversary's litigation brief as if it were a neutral record. These are excerpts chosen by plaintiffs' counsel to win a motion, released without the surrounding documents, and the defendants' opposition has not yet been filed. That does not make the quotes fake, but a brief is an argument, not a finding.
- **Scope shift:** The claim says Hecht called "the AI industry's buildout" the largest theft of labor. The quoted material concerns the scraping of web and news content for model training, not the industry buildout in the broader sense of capital spending, data centers or deployment. The narrower referent is the one the evidence supports.
- **Framing as a corporate admission:** The post's headline says a Microsoft director "admitted" this. Hecht's writings, as reported, read as an internal critic warning his employer about a practice he thought was wrong, including his concern that the defense would mock the idea of fair use. Microsoft states on the record that this was one employee's individual perspective and not the company's view. An internal objection and a corporate admission are different things, and the plaintiffs' use of it does not settle which one it is.
? What's uncertain 5
- The exact sentence in which "largest theft of labor in human history" appears. No source I retrieved quotes that full sentence with its surrounding words, and outlets differ on whether it carried a hedge such as "potentially" or was framed, like the neighboring quote, as a prediction of how others would see it. This is the single most consequential unresolved detail.
- Whether the "largest theft of labor" phrase was written by Hecht himself or appeared in an internal document he authored or circulated. The Times' own wording in places refers to "one internal Microsoft document from 2023" and to employees debating the point, while TechCrunch, the Washington Post and others attribute it directly to Hecht.
- The full internal memo remains nonpublic. Only the plaintiffs' excerpts are available, so the argument Hecht was making overall, and what he recommended, cannot be assessed.
- I did not retrieve the brief itself, so I am not asserting its contents directly. Everything above is what named outlets that reviewed it report.
- How the court will treat these statements. Nothing here has been ruled on, and a defense opposition brief is pending.
Sources
11 of 11 linked to recordsPlaintiffs' summary judgment brief, The New York Times Co. v. Microsoft Corp. et al., No. 1:23-cv-11195 (S.D.N.Y., Judge Sidney H. Stein), unsealed Sept. 17, 2026
Microsoft spokesperson statement on the record about Hecht's writings, as reported
The Washington Post, "Microsoft exec called AI the 'largest theft of labor' in history, court records show"
The New York Times report on the unsealed filing (read via a syndicated reprint)
TechCrunch, Sept. 17, 2026
Tom's Hardware, quoting the brief's fuller sentence
Daily Caller News Foundation / BizPac Review, close paraphrase of the brief's own hedging
Digiday, quoting the Turley passages
404 Media, "Doom Loop"
Engadget, noting the limits of what was released
Jason Kint (Digital Content Next) post flagging the unsealing