Latest news with #BradLightcap
Yahoo
11 hours ago
- Business
- Yahoo
OpenAI Fights Court Order Requiring It to Store Deleted ChatGPT Conversations Indefinitely
OpenAI is appealing a court order requiring it to store deleted ChatGPT conversations "indefinitely." The court order was issued as part of The New York Times' copyright lawsuit against OpenAI, where it has been accused, alongside Microsoft, of using the newspaper's articles to train its artificial intelligence models. In a statement, OpenAI chief operating officer Brad Lightcap described the court order as one that "fundamentally conflicts with the privacy commitments we have made to our users. It abandons long-standing privacy norms and weakens privacy protections." He added that the company believes that The New York Times has overreached with this court order and that OpenAI will continue to appeal the decision. According to The Verge, OpenAI in May was forced by the court order to preserve "all output log data that would otherwise be deleted," even if a user requests the deletion of a chat or if privacy laws require OpenAI to delete data. OpenAI said it filed a motion requesting that the magistrate judge reconsider the preservation order, adding, "Highlighting that indefinite retention of user data breaches industry norms and our own policies." Products impacted by the court order include ChatGPT Free, Plus, Pro, and Team subscription, or if users use the OpenAI API (application-programming interface) without a Zero Data Retention agreement. Excluded from this arrangement are customers using ChatGPT Enterprise or ChatGPT Edu. OpenAI noted that the deleted data will not be automatically shared with The New York Times and that it has been securely stored, accessible only under strict legal protocols.
Gizmodo
4 days ago
- Business
- Gizmodo
OpenAI Appeals ‘Sweeping, Unprecedented Order' Requiring It Maintain All ChatGPT Logs
Last month, a federal judge ordered OpenAI to indefinitely maintain all of ChatGPT's data as part of an ongoing copyright lawsuit. In response, OpenAI has filed an appeal to overturn the decision stating that the 'sweeping, unprecedented order' violates its users' privacy. The New York Times sued both OpenAI and Microsoft in 2023 claiming that the companies violated copyrights by using its articles to train their language models. However, OpenAI said the Times' case is 'without merit' and argued that the training falls under 'fair use'. Previously, OpenAI only kept chat logs for users of ChatGPT Free, Plus, and Pro who didn't opt out. However, in May, the Times and other news organizations claimed that OpenAI was engaging in a 'substantial, ongoing' destruction of chat logs that could contain evidence of copyright violations. Judge Ona Wang responded by ordering ChatGPT to maintain and segregate all ChatGPT logs that would otherwise be deleted. In a court appeal, OpenAI argued that Wang's order 'prevent[s] OpenAI from respecting its users' privacy decisions.' According to Ars Technica, the company also claimed that the Times' accusations were 'unfounded', writing, 'OpenAI did not 'destroy' any data, and certainly did not delete any data in response to litigation events. The order appears to have incorrectly assumed the contrary.' 'The [Times] and other plaintiffs have made a sweeping and unnecessary demand in their baseless lawsuit against us,' COO Brad Lightcap said in a statement. He added that the demand for OpenAI to retain all data 'abandons long-standing privacy norms and weakens privacy protections.' On X, CEO Sam Altman wrote that the 'inappropriate request…sets a bad precedent.' He also added that the case highlights the need for 'AI privilege' where 'talking to an AI should be like talking to a lawyer or a doctor.' we have been thinking recently about the need for something like "AI privilege"; this really accelerates the need to have the conversation. imo talking to an AI should be like talking to a lawyer or a doctor. i hope society will figure this out soon. — Sam Altman (@sama) June 6, 2025 The court order triggered an initial wave of panic. Per Ars Technica, OpenAI's court filing cited social media posts from LinkedIn and X where users expressed concerns about their privacy. On LinkedIn, one person warned their clients to be 'extra careful' about what information they shared with ChatGPT. In another example, someone tweeted, 'Wang apparently thinks the NY Times' boomer copyright concerns trump the privacy of EVERY @OPENAI USER – insane!!!' On one hand, I couldn't imagine having a ChatGPT log sensitive enough data that I'd care if someone else read it. However, people do use ChatGPT as a therapist, for life advice, and even treat it as a romantic partner. Regardless of whether I'd personally do the same, they deserve the right to keep that content private. At the same time, the Times' case isn't as baseless as OpenAI claims. It is absolutely worth discussing how artificial intelligence is trained. Remember when Clearview AI scraped 30 billion images from Facebook to train its facial recognition? Or reports that the federal government uses images of vulnerable people to test facial recognition software? Yes, those examples exist outside of journalism and copyright law. However, it highlights the need for conversations about whether companies like OpenAI should need explicit consent to utilize content rather than scraping whatever they want from the internet.
The Verge
4 days ago
- Business
- The Verge
OpenAI is storing deleted ChatGPT conversations as part of its NYT lawsuit
OpenAI says it's forced to store deleted ChatGPT conversations 'indefinitely' due to a court order issued as part of The New York Times ' copyright lawsuit against it. In a post on Thursday, OpenAI chief operating officer Brad Lightcap says the company is appealing the court's decision, which he calls an 'overreach' that 'abandons long-standing privacy norms and weakens privacy protections.' Last month, a court ordered OpenAI to preserve 'all output log data that would otherwise be deleted,' even if a user requests the deletion of a chat or if privacy laws require OpenAI to delete data. OpenAI's policies state that when a user deletes a chat, it retains it for 30 days before permanently deleting it. The company must now put a pause on this policy until the court says otherwise. OpenAI says the court order will impact free, Pro, Plus, and Team ChatGPT users. It won't affect ChatGPT Enterprise or ChatGPT Edu customers, or businesses that have a zero data retention agreement. OpenAI adds that the data won't be public, and 'only a small, audited OpenAI legal and security team' will be able to access the stored information for legal purposes. The Times sued OpenAI and Microsoft for copyright infringement in 2023, accusing the companies of 'copying and using millions' of the newspaper's articles to train their AI models. The publication argues that saving user data could help preserve evidence to support its case. 'We think this was an inappropriate request that sets a bad precedent,' OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said in a post on X. 'We will fight any demand that compromises our users' privacy; this is a core principle.' The New York Times declined to comment.
Time of India
4 days ago
- Business
- Time of India
OpenAI to appeal in NYT copyright case, CEO Sam Altman says ‘AI should be like talking to a…'
ChatGPT-maker said that it is appealing in a copyright case filed by The New York Times, which requires the company to keep all ChatGPT output data indefinitely. The company argues that this demand goes against its promise to protect users' privacy . Tired of too many ads? go ad free now CEO shared a post on microblogging platform X (formerly Twitter) writing: 'we will fight any demand that compromises our users' privacy; this is a core principle'. The post comes after a court directed the company to preserve and separate all user-generated data, following a request from The New York Times last month. The data is part of the ongoing legal case over the use of copyrighted content. OpenAI to appeal against the court's decision In a series of posts, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman wrote: 'Recently the NYT asked a court to force us to not delete any user chats. we think this was an inappropriate request that sets a bad precedent. we are appealing the decision. we will fight any demand that compromises our users' privacy; this is a core principle.' He further stated ' we have been thinking recently about the need for something like "AI privilege"; this really accelerates the need to have the conversation. imo talking to an AI should be like talking to a lawyer or a doctor. i hope society will figure this out soon.' The company has also shared a blog post where Brad Lightcap, COO, OpenAI said the New York Times and other plaintiffs have made a 'sweeping and unnecessary demand' in what it called 'baseless lawsuit'. OpenAI COO said that the demand to not delete users' chat 'fundamentally conflicts with the privacy commitments' and 'abandons long-standing privacy norms and weakens privacy protections.' 'We strongly believe this is an overreach by the New York Times. We're continuing to appeal this order so we can keep putting your trust and privacy first,' he added.
Business Insider
5 days ago
- Business
- Business Insider
Microsoft-Backed OpenAI (MSFT) Now Has Three Million Paying Business Users
Earlier today, Microsoft-backed OpenAI (MSFT) announced that it now has 3 million paying business users, which is a major increase from the 2 million it reported in February. These users come from ChatGPT Enterprise, ChatGPT Team, and ChatGPT Edu. The company first gained popularity in 2022 with its consumer AI chatbot and has since expanded into business-focused tools. Interestingly, OpenAI currently supports around 400 million weekly active users and expects to generate $12.7 billion in revenue this year, a big leap from last year's $3.7 billion revenue projection and estimated $5 billion loss. Confident Investing Starts Here: Furthermore, OpenAI says that its tools are being widely adopted, even in tightly regulated sectors like finance and healthcare. The company also just added new features to its business plans, such as 'connectors,' which let users pull data from services like Google Drive, Dropbox, SharePoint, and others, all within ChatGPT. In addition, a new 'record mode' lets users record and transcribe meetings, with plans to turn recordings into documents using a tool called Canvas. Interestingly, Brad Lightcap, OpenAI's COO, said businesses want ChatGPT to feel like an active helper, not a tool that is hidden away. As a result, the new features aim to make ChatGPT more useful in daily work by integrating it with the apps and documents people already use. This has led to OpenAI now signing nine new enterprise customers each week, and Lightcap believes these tools are becoming a standard part of how knowledge workers get things done. Is MSFT Stock a Buy? Although you cannot directly invest in OpenAI, you can buy shares of Microsoft, which has a 49% stake in OpenAI. And according to analysts, Microsoft stock has a Strong Buy consensus rating among 35 Wall Street analysts. That rating is based on 30 Buys and five Holds assigned in the last three months. Furthermore, the average MSFT price target of $514.07 implies 10.7% upside potential.
