OpenAI Must Turn Over ChatGPT Logs in New York Times Case

A federal judge ruled that OpenAI must produce over 20 million anonymized ChatGPT chat logs in its high profile copyright infringement case against The New York Times. U.S. Magistrate Judge Ona Wang ruled that the logs were relevant to the claims made by the NYTimes against OpenAI.

“On May 13, 2025, I directed OpenAI to preserve and segregate all output log data that would have otherwise been deleted on a going forward basis until further order of the Court,” the ruling notes. “The Court then held several settlement conferences with the News Plaintiffs and OpenAI regarding the issue of OpenAI’s deletion of consumer ChatGPT logs and potential spoliation concerns.”

After it discovered that OpenAI was deleting its chat logs in the wake of the Times’ lawsuit, the publication asked the judge to require the company to provide it with a “statistically valid monthly sample of OpenAI’s ChatGPT output logs from December 2022 through November 2024.” The goal, it said, was to prove that OpenAI had illegally used NYTimes content to train its AI models. OpenAI of course objected to this requirement, citing the time it would take. And then it later added a bogus privacy argument, and told the Times it would not comply.

The New York Times filed a motion to force OpenAI to turn over the chat logs the next day. OpenAI objected. Both sides presented oral and written arguments. And the judge ordered OpenAI to provide the chat logs on November 7. But OpenAI wasn’t done objecting: It asked the judge to stay her ruling so she could reconsider its motion.

Nope.

“OpenAI’s motion for reconsideration should be denied because OpenAI has failed to ‘put forth any facts or law that the Court did not consider and that would compel a different conclusion’.” the ruling explains. “While the Court could conclude its analysis on this basis alone, it will address OpenAI’s arguments. I find that production of the 20 Million ChatGPT Logs is both relevant and proportional … Production of the 20 million ChatGPT Logs is also proportional to the needs of the case. The total universe of retained consumer output logs is in the tens of billions. The 20 million sample here represents less than 0.05% of the total logs that OpenAI has retained in the ordinary course of business … Accordingly, OpenAI’s motion for reconsideration is DENIED.”

OpenAI now has 7 days to produce the logs.