News outlets ask court to sanction OpenAI in copyright case

Several news outlets, including The New York Times, asked a judge Thursday to sanction OpenAI for allegedly withholding evidence in a copyright dispute with the ChatGPT maker.

The newspapers, which have accused the AI firm of improperly using their copyrighted work to train its models, argue that OpenAI incorrectly claimed it could not search and preserve its training data and output logs.

“This is a case about copying,” they wrote in the filing. “There is no question that it happened. Nor should there be one about what was copied, how often, or to what end. The evidence is in OpenAI’s training datasets and ChatGPT output logs.”

“But instead of just producing that evidence of the start of the case and focusing on the merits of its fair use defense, OpenAI chose obstruction,” they continued.

The New York Times sued OpenAI and Microsoft, which was a key early investor in the company, for copyright infringement in December 2023. Other outlets brought similar lawsuits, which have since been consolidated into a single case.

They allege OpenAI “intentionally hid its discovery capabilities from News Plaintiffs and the Court for two years.”

The newspapers are asking the court to find that the outputs from the company’s chatbot show or would have shown “substantial and systematic grounding on and regurgitation” of their copyrighted work, in addition to seeking attorneys’ fees.

The Hill has reached out to OpenAI for comment. The company has previously argued that training its models on publicly available content is covered by fair use, a legal principle that allows for the use of copyrighted materials without permission in particular cases.

The ChatGPT maker has also suggested that pure regurgitation of newspapers’ work by the chatbot is a rare occurrence.

While the copyright dispute plays out in court, some outlets have instead reached licensing agreements with major AI companies. The Associated Press struck an agreement with OpenAI in 2023, as did Politico’s parent company, Axel Springer. News Corp, which owns The Wall Street Journal, similarly announced a partnership with the AI firm in 2024.

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