OpenAI accused of hiding evidence and lying to court in landmark copyright lawsuit with NYT
20 Sources
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OpenAI faked inability to search training data, hid billions of logs, NYT says
OpenAI is facing calls for "serious sanctions" after fighting to keep news organizations from snooping through millions of logs to find evidence of users skirting their paywalls by prompting ChatGPT to regurgitate their articles. This evidence is considered among the most important to both sides,
[2]
New York Times says OpenAI hid evidence in ChatGPT copyright trial
The New York Times and The Daily News claim that OpenAI has been lying about its ability to search customer chat log data and training datasets for their copyrighted works. It's the latest escalation in a two-year-old lawsuit against the AI firm for allegedly violating copyright law by training its
[3]
Publishers Accuse OpenAI of Withholding Evidence in Copyright Lawsuits
On Thursday, multiple news organizations accused OpenAI of withholding evidence about how the company trains its artificial intelligence models in a new motion that's connected to a series of ongoing copyright lawsuits. The motion was filed by 17 publishers, including The New York Times, the New
[4]
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
[5]
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
[6]
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
[7]
News outlets ask judge to sanction OpenAI in copyright case
The New York Times, the Daily News, and others accuse OpenAI of hiding evidence in a case that could reshape how AI is built, and how journalism survives A group of news publishers has asked a federal judge to impose sanctions on OpenAI. The New York Times, the Daily News, and others allege the
[8]
New York Times, publishers seek sanctions against OpenAI
The New York Times, The New York Daily News, and 15 other media organizations filed a motion Thursday in a Manhattan federal court asking a judge to impose sanctions on OpenAI, alleging the company withheld and destroyed evidence central to a high-stakes copyright lawsuit. At the heart of the
[9]
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
[10]
The New York Times is escalating its fight with OpenAI, urging a judge to impose sanctions
News outlets are asking a federal judge to sanction OpenAI, claiming it's hiding ChatGPT logs relevant to a landmark copyright trial. 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
[11]
News outlets ask court to sanction OpenAI in copyright case
Ranking Democrats' most winnable Senate races after Platner's withdrawal | DATA NERDS Several news outlets, including The New York Times, asked a judge Thursday to sanction OpenAI for allegedly withholding evidence in a copyright dispute with the ChatGPT maker. The newspapers, which have accused
[12]
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
[13]
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
[14]
NYT-Led Publishers Escalate Copyright Fight, Seek Court Sanctions Against OpenAI
The New York Times and several other news organizations have intensified their copyright lawsuit against OpenAI, asking a federal judge in Manhattan to sanction the company over allegations that it misled the court about its ability to identify copyrighted material within its AI systems. According
[15]
OpenAI Accused of Lying to Court in Newspaper Lawsuit | PYMNTS.com
The papers, The New York Times (NYT) and New York Daily News among them, accuse OpenAI of lying to a federal court about its ability to search its systems for evidence that it misused millions of their news stories to train its AI model, Reuters reported Thursday (July 9). "For over two years,
[16]
OpenAI faces sanctions bid as copyright case escalates
We have largely come to accept a modern digital bargain: When we interact with AI chatbots, our prompts become fodder for their ongoing training. These models feast on a constant stream of user data to survive. Now, however, that massive accumulation of chat history is exactly what has landed
[17]
OpenAI Celebrations Around Powerful New AI Model Dampened by Fresh Media Lawsuit
The lawsuit seeks legal sanctions against OpenAI for withholding evidence and asks for transparency in how they create and train AI models OpenAI CEO Sam Altman would be wondering what he has done wrong with media houses to incur their continued wrath for such a long time. Given that he seldom
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Why The New York Times wants OpenAI sanctioned by court
You can access the court document from here. A group of news publishers led by The New York Times has asked a US federal court to sanction OpenAI, accusing the company of misleading the court about its ability to search for copyrighted news content used to train its AI models and of deleting or
[19]
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
[20]
OpenAI accused of misleading court over ChatGPT data in lawsuit filed by publishers: Here is what we know
The newspapers have asked the court to impose sanctions on OpenAI. OpenAI is facing new allegations in its ongoing copyright lawsuit with a group of newspapers led by The New York Times and the New York Daily News. In a new court filing, the outlets have accused the AI company of misleading the
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The New York Times and 16 other publishers are asking a federal judge to sanction OpenAI for allegedly concealing evidence in their copyright infringement case. Court filings claim OpenAI lied for two years about its ability to search training data and ChatGPT logs, while secretly maintaining a database of 78 million conversations that could prove the AI company used copyrighted journalism without permission.
OpenAI Copyright Lawsuit Escalates with Sanctions Motion
The New York Times and a coalition of 16 other publishers filed a sanctions motion Thursday in Manhattan federal court, accusing OpenAI of systematically hiding evidence and lying about its technical capabilities in what could become a landmark copyright infringement case
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. The allegations center on OpenAI's repeated claims that it lacked the ability to search its systems for copyrighted content, statements now revealed to be false according to testimony from OpenAI privacy engineer Vincent Monaco during an April court-ordered deposition2
.The news outlets are requesting legal sanctions including financial penalties and attorney fees, arguing that OpenAI and Microsoft built their AI technologies using millions of news articles without permission
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. "For over two years, OpenAI lied to The Times, The Daily News Plaintiffs, the public, and the court," said Ian Crosby, lead counsel for the plaintiffs, in a statement4
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Source: MediaNama
OpenAI Hid Evidence of 78 Million Chat Logs
Among the most damaging revelations in the ChatGPT copyright trial, Monaco's testimony allegedly disclosed that OpenAI had already amassed a database of approximately 78 million de-identified ChatGPT conversations before The New York Times even filed its lawsuit in 2023
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. The company was using this data internally to evaluate how much it was infringing on copyrighted works, yet never disclosed its existence to the court or plaintiffs during two years of discovery proceedings1
.Additionally, OpenAI allegedly maintained a separate sample of 10 million logs that had already been de-identified and could have been made available early in the discovery process
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. The publishers claim OpenAI had already searched these samples for New York Times content as part of research into "creating a filter that could be used to block the regurgitation of copyrighted content" through an initiative called "Project Giraffe"2
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Source: PYMNTS
Discovery Misconduct and Unusable Evidence
News outlets urge judge to sanction OpenAI for what they characterize as systematic obstruction during the discovery process. Publishers originally requested a sample of 120 million chat logs, but OpenAI negotiated this down to just 20 million, citing technical burdens and user privacy concerns
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. When OpenAI finally submitted this smaller sample in December, it had made 19 billion redactions using AI, rendering the evidence "unusable" according to the court1
.The plaintiffs further allege that OpenAI deleted billions of relevant ChatGPT conversations after the lawsuit was filed, potentially violating the court's preservation order, and substituted millions of logs in the requested sample
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. "This motion asks the court to punish OpenAI for hiding and destroying evidence showing how ChatGPT was trained on stolen journalism," said New York Daily News attorney Steven Lieberman5
.Related Stories
What's at Stake in the AI Copyright Fight
The OpenAI withholding evidence in copyright lawsuits allegations strike at the heart of how large language models are trained and whether this constitutes fair use under intellectual property law. OpenAI and Microsoft have consistently argued that training AI systems on copyrighted material falls under fair use doctrine, while publishers contend the companies are building "substitutive products" that compete directly with original journalism
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.The journalism industry faces mounting pressure from AI-generated search summaries that reduce traffic to original sources. Some data shows small publishers have experienced a 60% traffic drop, with projections suggesting declines exceeding 40% by 2029
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. The New York Times has already spent more than $28 million fighting AI companies in court, according to financial regulatory filings5
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Source: BNN
The New York Times-led group asks court to sanction OpenAI by preventing the company from using the compromised 20 million log sample as evidence, accepting as fact that chat logs would have shown substantial regurgitation of copyrighted content, and requiring OpenAI to pay legal fees incurred while pursuing improperly withheld evidence
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.OpenAI spokesperson Drew Pusateri denied the allegations, stating: "As the Times' case weakens and they've been forced to drop claims against us, they're persisting with their efforts to invade the privacy of people who have nothing to do with this case, including by making these blatantly false allegations"
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. However, NYT spokesperson Graham James disputed that dropping one claim weakened their case, noting they added claims against Microsoft while maintaining their core allegations .The outcome could establish critical precedents for how AI companies access and use training data, potentially reshaping the relationship between tech giants and content creators across multiple industries facing similar legal challenges.
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