A coalition of newspapers alleges OpenAI misled the court about its ability to search ChatGPT training data, raising fresh questions about deleted chat logs.
On July 9, 2026, a group of newspapers, including The New York Times and New York Daily News, filed in a federal court in Manhattan a request to sanction OpenAI in their copyright case for allegedly lying to the court about the ability to search its systems for evidence that millions of their articles were used to train artificial intelligence.
In its filing with the court, the newspapers stated that OpenAI falsely claimed the impossibility of searching for materials protected by copyright within its large language models, while concealing that such a search had already been conducted before the first plaintiff from News filed suit.
The newspapers also stated that OpenAI deleted billions of relevant ChatGPT chat conversations or made them unavailable for search. They asked the court to impose sanctions, including reimbursement of defense costs, and to determine that OpenAI’s chat logs show the use of their works.
OpenAI had previously argued that transmitting ChatGPT chat conversations could violate user privacy.
Timeline of the Parties’ Statements and the Context of the Suit
For more than two years, OpenAI lied to The Times, to the Daily News plaintiffs, to the public, and to the court.
– Ian Crosby
They claimed that the search of ChatGPT source data on copies of The Times and The Daily News was inaccessible, burdensome, and an invasion of user privacy – while concealing that such a search had already been conducted.
– Ian Crosby
The Times newspaper also declined the second copyright infringement claim it previously raised against OpenAI, due to an amended complaint filed last month.
The suit, which Times initially filed in 2023, accuses OpenAI and its largest financial sponsor Microsoft of using millions of its articles without permission to train the large language model that lies at the heart of the popular ChatGPT chatbot.
This case is one of many in a chain of similar lawsuits by authors, visual artists, and music labels against tech companies like OpenAI, Anthropic, and Meta Platforms, alleging the use of their materials to train artificial intelligence systems.
“According to Times’ chief attorney Ian Crosby, the motion asks the court to punish OpenAI for concealing and destroying evidence of how ChatGPT was trained on stolen journalism,” said a newspaper spokesperson in a statement.
New York Daily News attorney Steven Liberman emphasized that the motion is aimed at punishing OpenAI for concealing and destroying evidence of using newspaper materials without lawful permission.
Among the plaintiffs there is also mention of how the case will be handled in the future, as it reflects a broad trend: content owners are fighting the use of their materials without permission to train AI systems, and courts are clarifying the boundaries of transparency and the obligation to provide relevant information.