News Outlets Seek Court Sanctions Against OpenAI Over Copyright Evidence in ChatGPT Trial

Summary

The New York Times, Daily News, Chicago Tribune, and other media outlets have filed a motion asking a federal judge to impose sanctions on OpenAI for allegedly concealing evidence in a landmark copyright infringement lawsuit. The plaintiffs claim OpenAI committed "discovery misconduct" by hiding ChatGPT logs and training datasets that could reveal how the company used millions of copyrighted news articles to build its AI system without permission or compensation. The filing argues that OpenAI has been making false representations for two years about its ability to identify copyrighted content in its training data, and that a recent employee deposition contradicts the company's earlier claims.

The case, filed by the Times in late 2023, represents one of the most significant legal challenges to how AI companies train their systems. At stake is whether AI chatbots unfairly compete as information sources, siphoning web traffic that traditionally drove readers to news outlets. OpenAI has defended its practices as protected "fair use" under copyright law, and claims it cannot share logs to protect user privacy. The company's response characterizes the allegations as "blatantly false" and argues the Times' case has weakened, noting that the publication has dropped some claims.

The escalation reflects broader tensions between AI companies and creative industries over training data. In a related case, Anthropic agreed to pay book authors $1.5 billion over alleged piracy—a settlement that underscores the potential liability facing AI developers. The outcome could establish important precedent for how AI systems can be trained and who bears responsibility when copyrighted material is used in machine learning.

• Anthropic's $1.5 billion settlement with authors signals potential liabilities for AI companies in similar copyright disputes