OpenAI and News Outlets Clash Over AI Training Data

The Core of the Copyright Dispute

A significant legal battle is unfolding in a New York federal court, pitting major news organizations, including the New York Times, against tech giants OpenAI and Microsoft. The news outlets allege that their copyrighted content was unlawfully used to train the large language models that power tools like ChatGPT, a direct violation of US Copyright Law. This case is being monitored closely as its outcome could set a major precedent for the future of AI development and intellectual property rights.

Discovery Dispute Halts Data Deletion

The lawsuit has hit a procedural snag, with both parties currently entrenched in a discovery dispute. According to recent, though heavily-redacted, court filings, a data sampling exercise has failed to resolve the conflict. A major consequence of this ongoing disagreement is that OpenAI has been compelled for months to preserve user chat data that was originally marked for deletion. This preservation order highlights the critical role that user interaction data may play in determining how copyrighted material was utilized and potentially reproduced by the AI models.