NYT-Led Publishers Seek Sanctions, Alleging OpenAI Faked Inability to Search Its Training Data

Ars Technica (corroborated by TechCrunch, Variety)·high signal

The New York Times and Daily News asked a Manhattan court on July 9 to sanction OpenAI, citing a February deposition from Vinnie Monaco indicating OpenAI had in fact searched its training datasets and outputs after claiming it technically could not. The filing alleges OpenAI maintained an internal database of roughly 78 million de-identified ChatGPT conversations to assess its own infringement exposure, and deleted billions of ChatGPT responses in violation of preservation orders. OpenAI spokesperson Drew Pusateri denied the allegations; the discovery-conduct question now runs alongside the underlying copyright claim.