OpenAI is storing deleted ChatGPT conversations as part of its NYT lawsuit

OpenAI says it’s compelled to retailer deleted ChatGPT conversations “indefinitely” as a consequence of a court docket order issued as a part of The New York Occasions’ copyright lawsuit towards it. In a post on Thursday, OpenAI chief working officer Brad Lightcap says the corporate is interesting the court docket’s determination, which he calls an “overreach” that “abandons long-standing privateness norms and weakens privateness protections.”

Final month, a court ordered OpenAI to protect “all output log knowledge that may in any other case be deleted,” even when a person requests the deletion of a chat or if privateness legal guidelines require OpenAI to delete knowledge. OpenAI’s policies state that when a person deletes a chat, it retains it for 30 days earlier than completely deleting it. The corporate should now put a pause on this coverage till the court docket says in any other case.

OpenAI says the court docket order will impression free, Professional, Plus, and Workforce ChatGPT customers. It received’t have an effect on ChatGPT Enterprise or ChatGPT Edu prospects, or companies which have a zero knowledge retention settlement. OpenAI provides that the info received’t be public, and “solely a small, audited OpenAI authorized and safety staff” will have the ability to entry the saved data for authorized functions.

The Occasions sued OpenAI and Microsoft for copyright infringement in 2023, accusing the businesses of “copying and utilizing hundreds of thousands” of the newspaper’s articles to coach their AI fashions. The publication argues that saving person knowledge may assist protect proof to help its case.

“We expect this was an inappropriate request that units a nasty precedent,” OpenAI CEO Sam Altman mentioned in a post on X. “We are going to battle any demand that compromises our customers’ privateness; it is a core precept.” The New York Occasions declined to remark.