Legal dispute with the New York Times OpenAI allegedly deleted important evidence
A data breach puts OpenAI in need of an explanation: In the ongoing legal dispute with the "New York Times", crucial evidence data was irrevocably deleted.
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- OpenAI has inadvertently deleted crucial evidence relevant to the dispute with the New York Times and the Daily News.
- Over 150 hours of research have been lost as the data structure has been irretrievably destroyed.
- The incident exacerbates OpenAI's communications crisis and could set a precedent with far-reaching consequences for the handling of AI training data in the industry.
A misstep by a tech giant - and it was made by OpenAI, the developer of ChatGPT, of all companies: in the middle of a legal dispute with the New York Times and the Daily News, crucial evidence data was deleted. The incident on November 14 is likely to further inflame the already tense conflict.
As reported by techcrunch.com, OpenAI technicians wanted to clean a virtual hard disk. But instead of removing unused data, they overshot the mark: evidence that could have shown whether OpenAI had used newspaper articles to train its AI without permission was irrevocably deleted. Particularly explosive: the data was supposed to clarify key questions in the proceedings.
Over 150 hours of work lost
Although some of the data has been recovered, the damage has been done. According to a lawyer's letter, the folder structure and file names have been "irretrievably lost". This means that it is no longer possible to trace which articles were used in which context. The prosecutors are now faced with a shambles: More than 150 hours of research work will have to be completely restarted.
"We do not assume that this was intentional, but it clearly shows that OpenAI has the best opportunities to search for potentially infringing content itself," said the opposing party's lawyers. Industry experts estimate the value of the dispute at millions of dollars.
A risky game
While other media companies such as Associated Press and Axel Springer have secured lucrative deals with OpenAI - Dotdash alone is said to collect 16 million dollars a year - OpenAI is keeping a low profile in the current case. There is no clear answer as to whether copyrighted works were used without permission. The silence is increasingly becoming a PR problem.
With this faux pas, OpenAI has put itself in a precarious position. The case could set a precedent with far-reaching consequences for the industry - and cost OpenAI dearly.