The news firms allege the ChatGPT maker is hiding evidence crucial to a potential copyright trial.
The New York Times and Daily News, alongside other U.S. media outlets, have requested a federal court to impose sanctions on OpenAI, intensifying a legal battle over AI and copyright that could redefine news industry challenges.
The plaintiffs claim OpenAI concealed data critical to a landmark copyright infringement case, asserting the company’s AI systems, developed with Microsoft, utilized millions of copyrighted news articles without proper attribution. They argue this practice unfairly competes with traditional journalism by replicating news content without the investigative work.
An April filing in Manhattan alleges OpenAI obstructed discovery by withholding datasets and ChatGPT logs. Plaintiffs accuse the company of “discovery misconduct,” citing contradictory statements from an OpenAI employee during a recent deposition.
“This motion seeks court-imposed penalties for OpenAI’s destruction of evidence demonstrating how ChatGPT was trained on stolen journalism,” stated Steven Lieberman, attorney for Daily News and affiliated outlets.
OpenAI contends producing ChatGPT logs could breach user privacy, a stance rejected by the media coalition.
“OpenAI has repeatedly misrepresented its compliance regarding copyrighted content in training data for two years,” Lieberman added.
The lawsuit, filed in late 2023, follows ChatGPT’s launch and intensified as Google introduced AI-generated search summaries in 2024, reducing ad revenue for news outlets. The case is part of a broader trend, with authors, artists, and music labels suing tech firms like OpenAI and Meta for unauthorized use of their work.
The Times has expended over $28 million in AI-related litigation, including a separate lawsuit against Perplexity AI, as reported in regulatory filings. Concurrently, some media entities have partnered with OpenAI and others via licensing agreements, paying for access to news archives to train AI models—highlighting the industry’s divided response to AI’s impact.