In a recent legal dispute, The New York Times and Daily News allege that OpenAI accidentally deleted potentially crucial evidence during their copyright infringement lawsuit. After agreeing to provide virtual machines for content searches, OpenAI’s engineers erased search data on November 14, forcing plaintiffs to restart their investigation.
Although OpenAI attempted data recovery, the restored information was deemed unusable due to lost folder structures and file names. The plaintiffs emphasized that this incident highlights OpenAI’s superior capability to search its own datasets.
OpenAI maintains its stance that training AI models using publicly available data constitutes fair use. Despite ongoing legal challenges, the company has recently established licensing agreements with several publishers, including the Associated Press and Axel Springer, though specific financial terms remain undisclosed.
The lawsuit underscores broader tensions surrounding AI training methodologies and intellectual property rights in the rapidly evolving technological landscape.
