Leading news publishers, including The New York Times and New York Daily News, have asked a federal judge in Manhattan to impose sanctions on OpenAI for allegedly withholding evidence in an ongoing copyright lawsuit. The publishers assert that OpenAI failed to preserve or disclose relevant datasets and ChatGPT conversation logs that could clarify how millions of articles were used to train the AI model.
The dispute centers on whether OpenAI improperly incorporated copyrighted news content into its training data without proper authorization. According to court filings, an OpenAI employee’s recent deposition revealed discrepancies with prior statements about the company’s ability to search and produce these materials, raising concerns about potential misrepresentation to the court.
The case is currently before U.S. Magistrate Judge Ona T. Wang in the Southern District of New York. The judge previously ordered OpenAI to retain ChatGPT output logs and mandated the production of large samples of de-identified chat records despite OpenAI’s objections based on user privacy commitments. OpenAI argues that retaining consumer data indefinitely violates their privacy policies.
The litigation began with The New York Times filing suit against OpenAI in late 2023, and it has since expanded to include other publishers such as MediaNews Group, the Chicago Tribune, Ziff Davis, and the Center for Investigative Reporting. These news organizations maintain that AI platforms like ChatGPT compete directly with traditional journalism by providing information that diminishes web traffic to news sites, which undermines their revenue streams—a trend further amplified by Google’s AI-generated search summaries.
OpenAI defends its training practices by citing the doctrine of fair use, asserting that its use of digitized books, articles, and other online materials falls within legal protections. However, the publishers challenge this claim, emphasizing the economic impact of AI-generated content on the sustainability of digital journalism.