NYT Seeks Sanctions Against OpenAI in Copyright Fight

The New York Times, alongside the Daily News and other media organizations, is escalating its legal battle with OpenAI by requesting a federal judge to impose sanctions. This action stems from allegations that OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT, is withholding crucial evidence related to its use of copyrighted news articles in training its artificial intelligence models. The media plaintiffs contend that OpenAI has "chosen obstruction" over cooperating with discovery requests, specifically concerning datasets and ChatGPT logs that could reveal how the AI system utilized copyrighted news content.

At the heart of the dispute is the question of whether AI chatbots unfairly compete with news organizations by acting as information sources that siphon off web traffic without undertaking the journalistic work of news gathering. A filing submitted on Thursday in a Manhattan federal courthouse alleges that OpenAI's "discovery misconduct" could compromise evidence, noting that a recent deposition of an OpenAI employee reportedly contradicts the company's prior statements. Steven Lieberman, an attorney representing the Daily News and seven affiliated papers, stated that OpenAI has made "misrepresentations" for two years regarding its capacity to search for copyrighted material within its AI training datasets and logs.

Lieberman further asserted that the motion seeks to penalize OpenAI for "hiding and destroying evidence showing how ChatGPT was trained on stolen journalism." OpenAI, however, has cited user privacy as the reason for its limitations in sharing ChatGPT logs. Drew Pusateri, an OpenAI spokesperson, issued a statement on Thursday, asserting that "the Times' case weakens and they’ve been forced to drop claims against us." Pusateri added that the Times is persisting in efforts to "invade the privacy of people who have nothing to do with this case" by making "blatantly false allegations." OpenAI intends to continue defending user privacy and "long-established principles of fair use."