A group of news publishers has asked a federal judge to impose sanctions on OpenAI. The New York Times, the Daily News, and others allege the ChatGPT maker is concealing evidence central to their copyright case, the Associated Press reports.
A filing on Thursday in Manhattan federal court claims OpenAI “chose obstruction” over handing over datasets and ChatGPT logs. Those records could show how the system used copyrighted news content to train.
The publishers accuse OpenAI of “discovery misconduct”, saying a recent deposition of an OpenAI employee contradicts the company’s earlier claims. Daily News lawyer Steven Lieberman said OpenAI had spent two years “making misrepresentations” about its ability to search its training data.
The motion asks the court to punish OpenAI for hiding and destroying evidence, in Lieberman’s words. OpenAI did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The stakes reach well beyond one filing. The Times sued OpenAI and Microsoft in late 2023, and has since been joined by a wave of other newspapers, alongside Ziff Davis and the Center for Investigative Reporting.
