OpenAI may have made a fatal misstep in copyright fight with news orgs

New York Times lawyers have requested sanctions against OpenAI, alleging the company failed to preserve essential evidence and withheld documents relevant to an ongoing copyright infringement lawsuit. The motion claims OpenAI intentionally deleted or obscured chat logs and internal data that could demonstrate how its models ingest and replicate copyrighted journalistic content. If the court finds merit in these accusations, the company could face severe procedural penalties or an adverse inference ruling that weakens its legal defense. This escalation highlights growing friction over the transparency of training data.