New York Times and news outlets push to sanction OpenAI for alleged evidence destruction

New York Times-led group asks court to sanction OpenAI in US copyright dispute

July 9 (Reuters) - A group of newspapers including the New York Times (NYT.N), opens new tab and New York Daily News asked a federal court in Manhattan on Thursday to sanction OpenAI in their high-stakes copyright dispute for allegedly lying to the court about its ability to search its systems for proof that it misused millions of their articles in AI training. The newspapers told the court, opens new tab in a filing that OpenAI falsely told the court it could not search its large language models for their copyrighted material while hiding that it had done so "even before the first News ⁠Plaintiff filed suit." The newspapers said that OpenAI had also deleted billions of relevant ChatGPT conversations or made them unsearchable. They asked the court for sanctions, including attorneys' fees, and a court finding that OpenAI's chat logs showed that the company misused their copyrighted works. Spokespeople for OpenAI did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the motion. The lawsuit, first filed by the Times in 2023, accused OpenAI and its largest financial backer Microsoft (MSFT.O), opens new tab of using millions of its articles without permission to train the large language model behind OpenAI's popular chatbot ⁠ChatGPT. The case is one of many brought by copyright owners including authors, visual artists and music labels against tech companies such as OpenAI, Anthropic and Meta Platforms for allegedly misusing their material to train AI systems. "For over two years, OpenAI lied to The Times, The Daily News Plaintiffs, ⁠the public, and the court," the New York Times' lead attorney Ian Crosby said in a statement. "It claimed searching ChatGPT outputs for copies of The Times' and the Daily News Plaintiffs' content was infeasible, ⁠burdensome, and invasive of users' privacy - while at the same time concealing that it had already done such searches." OpenAI previously told the court that it did not have ⁠tools to search its datasets and output logs for copyrighted material, but an OpenAI employee later testified that the company had "performed multiple searches for News Plaintiffs' content," according to the newspapers' Thursday filing. Reporting by Blake Brittain in Washington; edited by David Gaffen Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles., opens new tab * Suggested Topics: * Litigation * Data Privacy * Intellectual Property Blake Brittain Thomson Reuters Blake Brittain reports on intellectual property law, including patents, trademarks, copyrights and trade secrets, for Reuters Legal. He has previously written for Bloomberg Law and Thomson Reuters Practical Law and practiced as an attorney.

News outlets urge a judge to sanction OpenAI in a high-stakes AI copyright fight

NEW YORK (AP) -- The New York Times, the Daily News and other media outlets are asking a federal judge to impose sanctions on OpenAI, escalating a fight over artificial intelligence and copyright that could shape the future of a struggling news industry. The newspapers allege the ChatGPT maker is hiding evidence important to what could be a landmark copyright infringement trial over how OpenAI and its business partner, Microsoft, built their AI technologies using millions of news articles. At issue is whether AI chatbots are unfairly competing as an information source, siphoning off web traffic without doing the journalistic work involved in gathering the news. A filing Thursday in a Manhattan federal courthouse alleges OpenAI "chose obstruction" over releasing datasets and ChatGPT logs that could show how the AI system used copyrighted news content. The plaintiffs are asking the judge to penalize the company for "discovery misconduct" that could distort evidence, saying a recent deposition of an OpenAI employee contradicts the company's earlier claims. New York Daily News attorney Steven Lieberman said OpenAI has been "making misrepresentations" for two years about its ability to search for copyrighted content in its AI training datasets and logs. "This motion asks the court to punish OpenAI for hiding and destroying evidence showing how ChatGPT was trained on stolen journalism," said Lieberman, who represents the Daily News and seven of its sister papers. OpenAI didn't immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday. The New York Times sued OpenAI and Microsoft in late 2023, about a year after ChatGPT's debut sparked a commercial AI boom and began changing the way people search for information online. The threat to news publications became even more apparent when Google in 2024 introduced AI-generated summaries at the top of online search results, cutting off the advertising dollars that come when people click a link to the information's original source. The Times has since been joined by other news organizations, including Daily News and Chicago Tribune parent MediaNews Group, digital media publisher Ziff Davis and the nonprofit Center for Investigative Reporting. OpenAI and other tech companies have argued the process of training their AI systems on digitized books, online articles and other writings found on the internet is protected by the "fair use" doctrine of U.S. copyright law. It's a theory being tested in dozens of lawsuits as visual artists, novelists, music record labels and other creative industries take AI companies to court, with mixed results. In the case involving the biggest copyright settlement so far, OpenAI rival Anthropic agreed to pay book authors $1.5 billion for training its chatbot Claude on their pirated works -- an amount that represents a small fraction of Anthropic's $965 billion market valuation as it prepares to become publicly traded. The New York Times' arguments are different from those brought by book authors. In its original lawsuit and an amended complaint filed last month, it focused on the unfair competition of companies that "seek to free-ride on The Times's massive investment in its journalism by using it to build substitutive products without permission or payment." The Times has already spent more than $28 million on fighting AI companies in court, according to filings with financial regulators that disclose its litigation costs. The costs include another lawsuit the newspaper filed last year against AI company Perplexity. Among the sanctions sought by the newspapers Thursday are attorney fees that would pay for the efforts to secure "improperly withheld" evidence. The mounting costs come as a growing number of media organizations have signed licensing deals with OpenAI and other AI companies such as Google and Facebook parent Meta that typically pay the outlet a fee to be able to train AI systems on their news feeds or archives. The Associated Press was the first to announce such a deal with OpenAI in 2023. ___ O'Brien reported from Providence, Rhode Island.

New York Times and Other Publishers Ask Court to Penalize OpenAI

The Times, The New York Daily News and other media organizations accused OpenAI of withholding evidence in a lawsuit. The New York Times, The New York Daily News and 15 other media organizations said in a federal court filing on Thursday that OpenAI was withholding evidence that could play a key role in high-profile lawsuits the companies filed against the artificial intelligence start-up. With their filing, the publishers called for legal sanctions against OpenAI, accusing the company of violating court rules and acting in bad faith during the litigation's fact discovery phase. The Times sued OpenAI in late 2023, accusing the company of infringing on its copyrights by using its materials to train ChatGPT and other technologies. In the months that followed, other publishers sued the A.I. start-up, making similar accusations. Many of those cases were consolidated last year. In the motion on Thursday, known as sanctions filing, the publishers said OpenAI refused to provide information showing how the company's A.I. systems are trained and used. "The evidence is in OpenAI's training data sets and ChatGPT output logs," the parties said in their motion. "But instead of just producing that evidence at the start of the case and focusing on the merits of its fair use defense, OpenAI chose obstruction." OpenAI did not immediately respond to a request for comment. OpenAI has previously denied wrongdoing, saying it respects the rights of content creators. The company has also argued in a court filing that ChatGPT is not a substitute for a Times subscription. A sanctions filing is an unusual step that forces a judge to settle a legal disagreement, said Robin Feldman, a professor at U.C. Law San Francisco. It "makes the judge get down in the mud with other parties," she added. The Times was the first major American media company to sue OpenAI over copyright issues related to its written works. The Times's suit made similar accusations against Microsoft, one of OpenAI's primary partners. Microsoft has denied the allegations. A judicial panel last year consolidated many of the dozens of cases brought by publishers against OpenAI, including the lawsuits from The Times and from authors, including the comedian Sarah Silverman, John Grisham, Jonathan Franzen and George R.R. Martin. Like other A.I. companies, OpenAI has built its technologies by feeding them enormous amounts of data, some of which is copyrighted. OpenAI, Microsoft and other companies have long claimed that they can legally use copyrighted material to train their A.I. systems without paying for it because they transformed the material for a different use. The Times, The Daily News and other publishers filed their motion after deposing an OpenAI employee. The deposition, which was largely redacted in public court documents, shows that OpenAI could have provided the data the plaintiffs have long sought, the publishers claimed. "For two years, OpenAI has been making misrepresentations to the court regarding its ability to search for Daily News content in its training data sets and output logs," said Steven Lieberman, counsel for The Daily News and several other newspapers that have sued OpenAI. "OpenAI lied to The Times, the Daily News plaintiffs, the public and the court," said Ian B. Crosby, a partner at Susman Godfrey and the lead counsel for The Times. The publishers are asking for monetary penalties and other sanctions, according to the filing. The filing does not ask for sanctions against Microsoft.

News outlets seek sanctions against OpenAI in copyright battle

OpenAI has been "hiding and destroying evidence" of how it trained ChatGPT on copyrighted news content, US media organisations allege as legal costs in the landmark copyright battle top $28 million. Media organisations including the New York Times and the Daily News are asking a federal judge to impose sanctions on OpenAI, escalating a legal fight over artificial intelligence and copyright that could reshape the future of a struggling news industry. The newspapers allege the ChatGPT maker is concealing evidence central to what could be a landmark copyright infringement trial over how OpenAI and its business partner, Microsoft, built their AI systems using millions of news articles. At stake is whether AI chatbots are unfairly competing as an information source, draining web traffic without doing the journalistic work involved in gathering the news. A filing on Thursday in a Manhattan federal court alleges OpenAI "chose obstruction" over releasing datasets and ChatGPT logs that could show how the AI system used copyrighted news content. The plaintiffs are asking the judge to penalise the company for "discovery misconduct" that could distort evidence, saying a recent deposition of an OpenAI employee contradicts the company's earlier claims. New York Daily News attorney Steven Lieberman said OpenAI had been "making misrepresentations" for two years about its ability to search for copyrighted content in its AI training datasets and logs. "This motion asks the court to punish OpenAI for hiding and destroying evidence showing how ChatGPT was trained on stolen journalism," said Lieberman, who represents the Daily News and seven of its sister papers. The New York Times sued OpenAI and Microsoft in late 2023, about a year after ChatGPT's debut sparked a commercial AI boom and began changing the way people search for information online. The threat to news publications became more acute in 2024, when Google introduced AI-generated summaries at the top of search results, cutting off the advertising revenue generated when readers click through to an original source. The Times has since been joined by other news organisations, including Daily News and Chicago Tribune parent MediaNews Group, digital media publisher Ziff Davis and the nonprofit Center for Investigative Reporting. OpenAI and other tech companies have argued that training their AI systems on digitised books, online articles and other web content is protected by the "fair use" doctrine of US copyright law -- a theory being tested in dozens of lawsuits as visual artists, novelists, music labels and other creative industries take AI companies to court, with mixed results. In the largest copyright settlement so far, OpenAI rival Anthropic agreed to pay book authors $1.5 billion (€1.35bn) for training its Claude chatbot on their works without authorisation. The Times's arguments differ from those brought by book authors. In its original lawsuit and an amended complaint filed last month, it focused on the unfair competition of companies that seek to profit from its journalism without permission or payment to build rival products. The Times has already spent more than $28 million (€25m) fighting AI companies in court, according to regulatory filings disclosing its litigation costs -- including a separate lawsuit filed last year against AI company Perplexity. Among the sanctions sought on Thursday are attorney fees to cover the cost of securing what the newspapers call "improperly withheld" evidence. The escalating legal costs come as a growing number of media organisations have signed licensing deals with OpenAI and other AI companies, including Google and Meta, that pay outlets a fee to train AI systems on their news feeds or archives.

News Outlets Urge a Judge to Sanction OpenAI in a High-Stakes AI Copyright Fight

NEW YORK (AP) -- The New York Times, the Daily News and other media outlets are asking a federal judge to impose sanctions on OpenAI, escalating a fight over artificial intelligence and copyright that could shape the future of a struggling news industry. The newspapers allege the ChatGPT maker is hiding evidence important to what could be a landmark copyright infringement trial over how OpenAI and its business partner, Microsoft, built their AI technologies using millions of news articles. At issue is whether AI chatbots are unfairly competing as an information source, siphoning off web traffic without doing the journalistic work involved in gathering the news. A filing Thursday in a Manhattan federal courthouse alleges OpenAI "chose obstruction" over releasing datasets and ChatGPT logs that could show how the AI system used copyrighted news content. The plaintiffs are asking the judge to penalize the company for "discovery misconduct" that could distort evidence, saying a recent deposition of an OpenAI employee contradicts the company's earlier claims. New York Daily News attorney Steven Lieberman said OpenAI has been "making misrepresentations" for two years about its ability to search for copyrighted content in its AI training datasets and logs. "This motion asks the court to punish OpenAI for hiding and destroying evidence showing how ChatGPT was trained on stolen journalism," said Lieberman, who represents the Daily News and seven of its sister papers. OpenAI didn't immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday. The New York Times sued OpenAI and Microsoft in late 2023, about a year after ChatGPT's debut sparked a commercial AI boom and began changing the way people search for information online. The threat to news publications became even more apparent when Google in 2024 introduced AI-generated summaries at the top of online search results, cutting off the advertising dollars that come when people click a link to the information's original source. The Times has since been joined by other news organizations, including Daily News and Chicago Tribune parent MediaNews Group, digital media publisher Ziff Davis and the nonprofit Center for Investigative Reporting. OpenAI and other tech companies have argued the process of training their AI systems on digitized books, online articles and other writings found on the internet is protected by the "fair use" doctrine of U.S. copyright law. It's a theory being tested in dozens of lawsuits as visual artists, novelists, music record labels and other creative industries take AI companies to court, with mixed results. In the case involving the biggest copyright settlement so far, OpenAI rival Anthropic agreed to pay book authors $1.5 billion for training its chatbot Claude on their pirated works -- an amount that represents a small fraction of Anthropic's $965 billion market valuation as it prepares to become publicly traded. The New York Times' arguments are different from those brought by book authors. In its original lawsuit and an amended complaint filed last month, it focused on the unfair competition of companies that "seek to free-ride on The Times's massive investment in its journalism by using it to build substitutive products without permission or payment." The Times has already spent more than $28 million on fighting AI companies in court, according to filings with financial regulators that disclose its litigation costs. The costs include another lawsuit the newspaper filed last year against AI company Perplexity. Among the sanctions sought by the newspapers Thursday are attorney fees that would pay for the efforts to secure "improperly withheld" evidence. The mounting costs come as a growing number of media organizations have signed licensing deals with OpenAI and other AI companies such as Google and Facebook parent Meta that typically pay the outlet a fee to be able to train AI systems on their news feeds or archives. The Associated Press was the first to announce such a deal with OpenAI in 2023. ___ O'Brien reported from Providence, Rhode Island.

New York Times-led group asks court to sanction OpenAI in US copyright dispute

Newspapers have asked a federal court to sanction OpenAI for allegedly lying about its AI training data. They claim OpenAI falsely stated it could not search its systems for copyrighted articles. This comes as OpenAI is accused of misusing millions of news articles without permission. The newspapers seek attorneys' fees and a court finding of misuse of their works. A group of newspapers including the New York Times and New York Daily News asked a federal court in Manhattan on Thursday to sanction OpenAI in their high-stakes copyright dispute for allegedly lying to the court about its ability to search its systems for proof that it misused millions of their articles in AI training. The newspapers told the ⁠court in ⁠a filing that OpenAI falsely told the court it could not search its large language models for their copyrighted material while hiding that it had done so "even before the first News Plaintiff filed suit." The newspapers said that OpenAI had also deleted billions of relevant ChatGPT conversations or made them unsearchable. They asked the court for sanctions, including attorneys' fees, and a court finding that OpenAI's ⁠chat logs showed that the company misused their copyrighted works. Spokespeople for OpenAI did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the motion. The ⁠lawsuit, first filed by the Times in 2023, accused OpenAI and its largest financial backer Microsoft of using millions of its articles without permission to train the large language model behind OpenAI's popular chatbot ChatGPT. The case is one of many brought by copyright owners including authors, visual artists and music labels against tech companies such as OpenAI, Anthropic and Meta Platforms for allegedly misusing their material to train AI systems. "For over two years, OpenAI lied to The Times, The Daily News Plaintiffs, the public, and the court," the New York Times' lead attorney Ian Crosby said in a ⁠statement. "It claimed searching ChatGPT outputs for copies of The Times' and the Daily News Plaintiffs' content was infeasible, burdensome, and invasive of users' privacy - while at the same time concealing that it had already done such searches." OpenAI previously told the court that it did not have tools to search its datasets and output logs for copyrighted material, but an OpenAI employee later testified that the company had "performed multiple searches for News Plaintiffs' content," according to the newspapers' Thursday filing.

News outlets urge a judge to sanction OpenAI in a high-stakes AI copyright fight

NEW YORK -- The New York Times, the Daily News and other media outlets are asking a federal judge to impose sanctions on OpenAI, escalating a fight over artificial intelligence and copyright that could shape the future of a struggling news industry. The newspapers allege the ChatGPT maker is hiding evidence important to what could be a landmark copyright infringement trial over how OpenAI and its business partner, Microsoft, built their AI technologies using millions of news articles. At issue is whether AI chatbots are unfairly competing as an information source, siphoning off web traffic without doing the journalistic work involved in gathering the news. A filing Thursday in a Manhattan federal courthouse alleges OpenAI "chose obstruction" over releasing datasets and ChatGPT logs that could show how the AI system used copyrighted news content. The plaintiffs are asking the judge to penalize the company for "discovery misconduct" that could distort evidence, saying a recent deposition of an OpenAI employee contradicts the company's earlier claims. New York Daily News attorney Steven Lieberman said OpenAI has been "making misrepresentations" for two years about its ability to search for copyrighted content in its AI training datasets and logs. "This motion asks the court to punish OpenAI for hiding and destroying evidence showing how ChatGPT was trained on stolen journalism," said Lieberman, who represents the Daily News and seven of its sister papers. OpenAI didn't immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday. The New York Times sued OpenAI and Microsoft in late 2023, about a year after ChatGPT's debut sparked a commercial AI boom and began changing the way people search for information online. The threat to news publications became even more apparent when Google in 2024 introduced AI-generated summaries at the top of online search results, cutting off the advertising dollars that come when people click a link to the information's original source. The Times has since been joined by other news organizations, including MediaNews Group-owned newspapers the Daily News and the Chicago Tribune, digital media publisher Ziff Davis and the nonprofit Center for Investigative Reporting. OpenAI and other tech companies have argued the process of training their AI systems on digitized books, online articles and other writings found on the internet is protected by the "fair use" doctrine of U.S. copyright law. It's a theory being tested in dozens of lawsuits as visual artists, novelists, music record labels and other creative industries take AI companies to court, with mixed results. In the case involving the biggest copyright settlement so far, OpenAI rival Anthropic agreed to pay book authors US$1.5 billion for training its chatbot Claude on their pirated works -- an amount that represents a small fraction of Anthropic's US$965 billion market valuation as it prepares to become publicly traded. The New York Times' arguments are different from those brought by book authors. In its original lawsuit and an amended complaint filed last month, it focused on the unfair competition of companies that "seek to free-ride on The Times's massive investment in its journalism by using it to build substitutive products without permission or payment." The Times has already spent more than US$28 million on fighting AI companies in court, according to filings with financial regulators that disclose its litigation costs. The costs include another lawsuit the newspaper filed last year against AI company Perplexity. Among the sanctions sought by the newspapers Thursday are attorney fees that would pay for the efforts to secure "improperly withheld" evidence. The mounting costs come as a growing number of media organizations have signed licensing deals with OpenAI and other AI companies such as Google and Facebook parent Meta that typically pay the outlet a fee to be able to train AI systems on their news feeds or archives. The Associated Press was the first to announce such a deal with OpenAI in 2023. ___ Matt O'brien And Jocelyn Noveck, The Associated Press