OpenAI and NYT remain locked in legal battle over user data

OpenAI is appealing a ruling by The New York Times in a copyright case that would force it to store ChatGPT output data indefinitely. According to the company, the ruling is inconsistent with privacy promises to users.

The American artificial intelligence firm was ordered last month by a court to preserve and segregate all output log data after the Times requested it do so.

The order followed the 2023 New York Times suit against OpenAI and Microsoft. The newspaper claimed that the tech companies trained the large language model behind its popular chatbot on millions of articles without consent.

The New York Times sues OpenAI with copyright allegations 

US District Judge Sidney Stein wrote in an April court opinion that the Times had filed a lawsuit alleging that the two tech firms had induced users to infringe its copyrights.

Sam Altman, CEO at OpenAI, published a post on X on Thursday, June 5, in response to the court judgment, stating that they will resist any demand threatening user privacy. Altman called it their mantra.

He also said they found a basis of “bad faith” in The Times’s request, adding that they believe it could set a bad precedent.

The New York Times did not immediately respond to a request for comment after regular business hours.

This case is one of many filed by copyright holders like authors, visual artists, and record labels. They claim that tech companies such as OpenAI, Microsoft, and Meta Platforms used their work without permission to train AI systems. 

Stein allows the Times to press forward with allegations

Judges are now considering whether the tech companies are shielded from the primary allegations under the US copyright law’s fair use doctrine, which permits the unauthorized use of copyrighted works in certain situations. 

Last year, OpenAI and Microsoft asked Stein to throw out some of the Times’ claims on other grounds, but the judge rejected that. Stein’s ruling also rejected OpenAI’s argument that some of the newspaper’s direct infringement claims were time-barred, but it waived some of the Times’ related claims, including unfair competition.

When asked to comment, a spokesman from OpenAI referred back to a previous comment. The statement mentioned that the company’s models promote innovation and rely on information available to the public through fair use.

The US District Judge also denied OpenAI’s motion to dismiss the infringement claims tied to AI training in 2019 and 2020. He rejected OpenAI’s argument that the claims were stale and did not fit within the three-year statute of limitations

Stein permitted the Times to press forward with allegations that the American artificial intelligence firm’s output included copyrighted content and violated users’ copyrights, a departure from California judges who have rejected similar claims.

In a statement, the New York Times stated that it will keep pursuing all its copyright claims against Microsoft and OpenAI for the widespread theft of millions of their works. According to the newspaper, they were eager to continue this fight. 

Microsoft’s lawyers and representatives did not immediately reply to a comment request. 

The case, The New York Times Co. v. Microsoft Corp., is filed in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York under No. 1:23-cv-11195.

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