OpenAI Challenges Court Order to Preserve User Data in NYT Lawsuit

OpenAI is pushing back against a federal court mandate to retain all user data, including deleted chats, as part of an ongoing copyright lawsuit filed by The New York Times. The AI firm argues the order compromises user privacy and lacks relevance to the case.

The dispute originates from a May 13 directive requiring OpenAI to preserve output log data that would typically be purged. The Times alleges OpenAI and Microsoft illegally used copyrighted content to train AI models like ChatGPT, threatening journalism's economic viability.

Brad Lightcap, OpenAI's COO, framed the preservation order as overreach: "We're appealing to prioritize user trust and privacy." The case hinges on whether AI training constitutes fair use of copyrighted material—a precedent-setting question for generative AI's future.