OpenAI challenges court order to preserve ChatGPT data in copyright case

New Delhi: OpenAI has filed an appeal against a court order that mandates the indefinite preservation of output data from its ChatGPT chatbot, arguing that the directive clashes with its commitment to protecting user privacy.

The order, issued last month, came after a request by The New York Times to preserve and isolate all output logs relevant to its ongoing copyright lawsuit against OpenAI and Microsoft. The Times sued the two companies in 2023, alleging that millions of its articles were used without consent to train large language models like ChatGPT.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman addressed the matter on social media platform X, stating, “We will fight any demand that compromises our users’ privacy; this is a core principle.” He also added, “We think this (The Times demand) was an inappropriate request that sets a bad precedent.”

On June 3, OpenAI submitted a court filing requesting US District Judge Sidney Stein to vacate the original data preservation order issued in May.

The New York Times declined to comment on the recent development.

In an earlier court opinion from April, Judge Stein concluded that the Times had presented sufficient evidence to support its claim that OpenAI and Microsoft may have encouraged copyright infringement. The opinion also upheld the Times’ right to pursue parts of its lawsuit, citing "numerous" and "widely publicised" instances of ChatGPT generating content that resembled the newspaper's material.

The case remains ongoing as legal questions around the use of copyrighted content in training AI models continue to evolve.