OpenAI Accidentally Deletes Potential Evidence in Copyright Lawsuit with The New York Times
13 Sources
[1]
Tech problems plague OpenAI court battles; judge rejects a key fair use defense
OpenAI keeps deleting data that could allegedly prove the AI company violated copyright laws by training ChatGPT on authors' works. Apparently largely unintentional, the sloppy practice is seemingly dragging out early court battles that could determine whether AI training is fair use. Most
[2]
OpenAI accidentally deleted potential evidence in NY Times copyright lawsuit (updated)
Lawyers for The New York Times and Daily News, which are suing OpenAI for allegedly scraping their works to train its AI models without permission, say OpenAI engineers accidentally deleted data potentially relevant to the case. Earlier this fall, OpenAI agreed to provide two virtual machines so
[3]
OpenAI accidentally deleted potential evidence in NY Times copyright lawsuit
Lawyers for The New York Times and Daily News, which are suing OpenAI for allegedly scraping their works to train its AI models without permission, say OpenAI engineers accidentally deleted data potentially relevant to the case. Earlier this fall, OpenAI agreed to provide two dedicated virtual
[4]
NYT vs OpenAI case: OpenAI accidentally deleted case data
Disclaimer: This content generated by AI & may have errors or hallucinations. Edit before use. Read our Terms of use Attorneys representing The New York Times (NYT) and Daily News in their lawsuit against OpenAI, which alleges unauthorised use of their content to train AI models, claim that OpenAI
[5]
OpenAI accidentally deleted potential evidence in New York Times copyright lawsuit case
OpenAI may have accidentally deleted important data related to its ongoing copyright lawsuit brought by the New York Times. First reported by TechCrunch, counsel for the Times and its co-plaintiff Daily News sent a letter to the judge overseeing the case, detailing how "an entire week's worth of
[6]
OpenAI reportedly deleted evidence in NY Times copyright lawsuit
Lawyers for The New York Times and Daily News claim that OpenAI inadvertently deleted crucial data related to their copyright lawsuit against the company regarding unauthorized use of their content, according to a TechCrunch report. The incident occurred after OpenAI agreed to provide access to its
[7]
New York Times Says OpenAI Erased Potential Lawsuit Evidence
Lawsuits are never exactly a lovefest, but the copyright fight between The New York Times and both OpenAI and Microsoft is getting especially contentious. This week, the Times alleged that OpenAI's engineers inadvertently erased data the paper's team spent more than 150 hours extracting as
[8]
OpenAI Accused of Evidence Tampering, Accidentally Erased Key Evidence in New York Times Lawsuit
Lawyers say there was no evidence the erasure was done on purpose. The legal battle between The New York Times and OpenAI has taken a new twist after the publisher accused the defendant of accidentally destroying evidence. Specifically, the Times said OpenAI engineers deleted information it had
[9]
OpenAI "Accidentally" Deleted Evidence From Its New York Times Lawsuit
OpenAI made a major oopsie when its engineers accidentally deleted a bunch of evidence sought by the New York Times in its copyright lawsuit against the AI firm and its benefactor Microsoft. In a letter to the judge presiding over the suit, lawyers for the NYT and the New York Daily News said that
[10]
OpenAI Accidentally Deletes ChatGPT Training Data Amid Publisher Copyright Claims, Sparking Concerns Over Evidence Retention In Legal Cases
OpenAI has been in a bit of controversy with the press, as The New York Times and the Daily News have sued the AI giant and its investors, claiming that ChatGPT was trained using their copyrighted content. The lawyers' research data, that went into training AI models, was deleted by OpenAI
[11]
OpenAI accidentally erases potential evidence in training data lawsuit
In a stunning misstep, OpenAI engineers accidentally erased critical evidence gathered by The New York Times and other major newspapers in their lawsuit over AI training data, according to a court filing Wednesday. The newspapers' legal teams had spent over 150 hours searching through OpenAI's AI
[12]
OpenAI accidentally erased ChatGPT training findings as lawyers seek copyright violations - 9to5Mac
The New York Times and Daily News have sued OpenAI and its investor Microsoft over suspicions that ChatGPT was trained on their copyrighted works. Now, it turns out, the lawyers' research into the training data was erased last week by OpenAI engineers, presumably by accident. Kyle Wiggers writes
[13]
The New York Times says OpenAI deleted evidence in its copyright lawsuit
Most of it has been recovered but key parts showing the AI's pattern of plagiarism is still missing. Astrophysicist Stephen Hawking told Last Week Tonight's John Oliver a chilling but memorable hypothetical story a decade ago about the potential dangers of AI. The gist is a group of scientists
Share
Copy Link
OpenAI faces challenges in a copyright lawsuit as it accidentally erases crucial data during the discovery process, leading to delays and complications in the legal battle with The New York Times and Daily News.
OpenAI's Accidental Data Deletion Complicates Copyright Lawsuit
In a significant development in the ongoing copyright lawsuit against OpenAI, the artificial intelligence company has accidentally deleted potential evidence, causing delays and complications in the legal proceedings. The New York Times and Daily News, plaintiffs in the case, have reported that OpenAI engineers inadvertently erased crucial data during the discovery process
1
.The Incident and Its Implications
On November 14, 2024, OpenAI engineers erased programs and search result data stored on one of the dedicated virtual machines provided for the plaintiffs' counsel to perform searches for copyrighted content in OpenAI's training datasets
2
. While OpenAI managed to recover much of the data, the folder structure and file names were irretrievably lost, rendering the recovered data unusable for determining where the plaintiffs' copied articles were used in building OpenAI's models3
.Conflicting Accounts and Technical Challenges
The incident has led to conflicting accounts from both parties. The plaintiffs' counsel claims that over 150 hours of work has been lost, necessitating the recreation of their work from scratch
4
. OpenAI, however, denies deleting any evidence and attributes the issue to a system misconfiguration requested by the plaintiffs, which led to technical problems2
.Fair Use Defense and Licensing Deals
At the core of this legal battle is OpenAI's assertion that training AI models using publicly available data, including articles from The New York Times and Daily News, constitutes fair use
5
. The company maintains that it is not required to license or pay for the examples used in training its models, even if it profits from them3
.Related Stories
Broader Implications for AI and Copyright
This case highlights the complex intersection of AI technology and copyright law. As AI companies continue to develop large language models trained on vast amounts of data, questions about fair use, compensation, and the rights of content creators remain at the forefront of legal and ethical discussions in the tech industry
5
.Moving Forward
The accidental deletion of data has underscored the challenges in conducting discovery in such technologically complex cases. The plaintiffs argue that this incident demonstrates that OpenAI is best positioned to search its own datasets for potentially infringing content
4
. As the legal proceedings continue, the outcome of this case could have significant implications for the future of AI development and copyright law in the digital age.References
Summarized by
Navi
[2]
Related Stories
OpenAI Forced to Retain Deleted ChatGPT Conversations Amid NYT Lawsuit, Sparking Privacy Concerns
06 Jun 2025•Technology
OpenAI accused of hiding evidence and lying to court in landmark copyright lawsuit with NYT
09 Jul 2026•Policy and Regulation
OpenAI Battles Court Order to Hand Over 20 Million Private ChatGPT Conversations in NYT Copyright Case
12 Nov 2025•Policy and Regulation
Recent Highlights
1
OpenAI Pauses AI Model Training After Agent Hacks Australian Government Website
Technology
2
Bill Gates Warns AI Could Cause a Billion Deaths, Calls for Urgent Federal Regulation
Policy and Regulation
3
Meta Unveils Camera-Free AI Glasses and Muse Integration Amid Privacy Debate at Connect 2026
Technology
Recent Highlights
Today's Top Stories
Don’t drown in AI news. We cut through the noise - filtering, ranking and summarizing the most important AI news, breakthroughs and research daily. Follow topics that matter to you and stay ahead.
