Introduction
OpenAI is currently appealing a court order to preserve ChatGPT output data indefinitely in a copyright case initiated by the New York Times, claiming that the order contradicts their privacy commitments to users.Context
Last month, a court mandated OpenAI to preserve and segregate all output log data following a request from the New York Times. OpenAI's CEO, Sam Altman, emphasized the company's commitment to user privacy in a post on X, stating, "We will fight any demand that compromises our users' privacy; this is a core principle."Developments
On June 3, U.S. District Judge Sidney Stein received a request to vacate the previous order for data preservation. The New York Times has opted not to comment on the ongoing case. In 2023, the newspaper filed a lawsuit against OpenAI and Microsoft, accusing them of utilizing millions of its articles without permission in the training of the large language model that powers ChatGPT.Judge Stein highlighted that the Times had presented a compelling case showing that OpenAI and Microsoft might have induced users to violate its copyrights. The judge referenced an earlier ruling that dismissed certain motions from OpenAI and Microsoft, pointing out that the Times' numerous and widely publicized examples of ChatGPT generating content from its articles warranted allowing the claims to proceed.