Describing OpenAI\u2019s alleged \u201cplaybook\u201d to dodge copyright claims, news groups accused OpenAI of failing to \u201ctake any steps to suspend its routine destruction practices.\u201d There were also \u201ctwo spikes in mass deletion\u201d that OpenAI attributed to \u201ctechnical issues.\u201d<\/p>\n
However, OpenAI made sure to retain outputs that could help its defense, the court filing alleged, including data from accounts cited in news organizations\u2019 complaints.<\/p>\n
OpenAI did not take the same care to preserve chats that could be used as evidence against it, news groups alleged, citing testimony from Mike Trinh, OpenAI\u2019s associate general counsel. \u201cIn other words, OpenAI preserved evidence of the News Plaintiffs eliciting their own works from OpenAI\u2019s products but deleted evidence of third-party users doing so,\u201d the filing said.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s unclear how much data was deleted, plaintiffs alleged, since OpenAI won\u2019t share \u201cthe most basic information\u201d on its deletion practices. But it\u2019s allegedly very clear that OpenAI could have done more to preserve the data, since Microsoft apparently had no trouble doing so with Copilot, the filing said.<\/p>\n
News plaintiffs are hoping the court will agree that OpenAI and Microsoft aren\u2019t fighting fair by delaying sharing logs, which they said prevents them from building their strongest case.<\/p>\n
They\u2019ve asked the court to order Microsoft to \u201cimmediately\u201d produce Copilot logs \u201cin a readily searchable remotely-accessible format,\u201d proposing a deadline of January 9 or \u201cwithin a day of the Court ruling on this motion.\u201d<\/p>\n
Microsoft declined Ars\u2019 request for comment.<\/p>\n
And as for OpenAI, it wants to know if the deleted logs, including \u201cmass deletions,\u201d can be retrieved, perhaps bringing millions more ChatGPT conversations into the litigation that users likely expected would never see the light of day again.<\/p>\n