Technology & Science
OpenAI Moves to Vacate Order Requiring 20 Million ChatGPT Logs in NYT Copyright Suit
On 12 Nov 2025, OpenAI asked the Southern District of New York to overturn Magistrate Judge Ona Wang’s 7 Nov order compelling it to hand over 20 million anonymized ChatGPT conversations to the New York Times, calling the production a privacy overreach.
Focusing Facts
- Judge Wang’s 7 Nov 2025 discovery order set a Friday deadline for OpenAI to deliver 20 million de-identified chat logs covering Dec 2022–Nov 2024.
- OpenAI’s filing says 99.99 % of the requested transcripts are irrelevant to alleged Times copyright infringements.
- The underlying Times v. OpenAI/Microsoft lawsuit, lodged in Dec 2023, is among the first major media-copyright challenges to large-scale AI training data use.
Context
Copyright fights rarely stay confined to IP law; they become proxy battles over control of new information infrastructures. When Google scanned 25 million books (2004-2011) the courts weighed fair use against authors’ rights and ultimately forced a narrower settlement, echoing the tension seen in Napster’s shutdown (2001) where privacy arguments were likewise mobilised but secondary to market power. Today’s dispute reflects two accelerating trends: (1) mass data-hungry AI models colliding with 20th-century copyright rules, and (2) the growing expectation that user data—even when stripped of names—can still be re-identified, making “anonymisation” a legally shaky shield. Whether the court lets a private publisher sift through millions of user conversations will influence future discovery norms for AI systems and could nudge legislators toward firmer data-governance regimes. A century from now, this skirmish may be remembered less for who won the lawsuit than for how early-stage generative-AI firms attempted to set privacy expectations while relying on expansive data scraping—much as the 1909 Copyright Act now matters mainly for how it framed the modern idea of intellectual property in the machine age.
Perspectives
Tech & business news outlets
Reuters-syndicated feeds, Asian financial press — Portray OpenAI as the protector of user privacy, arguing that the Times’ request for 20 million ChatGPT logs is sweeping, irrelevant to copyright claims and risks exposing sensitive data. These publications rely heavily on OpenAI’s filings and blog posts, give limited space to the Times’ arguments, and tend to adopt a pro-innovation, pro-business framing commonly favoured by advertisers and investors in the tech sector.
Business Insider
Axel-Springer business press — Frames OpenAI’s latest statement as a public-relations gambit after already losing the discovery fight, stressing that a judge found privacy safeguards sufficient and that the company is omitting this fact in its messaging. Owned by a publisher that has a licensing deal with OpenAI yet also sees itself as a defender of newsroom copyright, it balances commercial interests with newsroom pride by casting suspicion on OpenAI’s motives while highlighting journalism’s legal win.
Right-leaning U.S. commentary outlets
e.g., Washington Examiner — Cast the Times’ demand as an ideological overreach and applaud OpenAI for resisting what they depict as an assault on privacy and fair-use principles, folding the dispute into broader critiques of the newspaper. The coverage fits the outlet’s long-standing antagonism toward mainstream liberal media, using the lawsuit to reinforce culture-war narratives and downplaying potential copyright harms flagged by the Times.