In a legal battle that has sparked significant public debate, OpenAI has taken a firm stance against The New York Times’ lawsuit, dismissing the paper’s request for 20 million ChatGPT user conversations as an invasion of privacy. The company, led by Chief Information Security Officer Dane Stuckey, has issued a strong statement condemning the Times for what it describes as a disregard for long-standing privacy protections. The Times is accused of attempting to undermine OpenAI’s security measures and force the tech giant to disclose highly personal user data unrelated to its lawsuit.
Stuckey emphasized that the company has implemented strict privacy protocols, including a ‘de-identifying procedure’ to scrub personal information from conversations. He argued that OpenAI had already offered the Times several privacy-preserving options, which were rejected. The company successfully limited the scope of the requested data to 20 million random conversations from December 2022 to November 2024, a significant reduction from the initial 1.4 billion conversations sought by the Times.
The New York Times, however, maintains that its legal request is a necessary step to hold OpenAI and Microsoft accountable for alleged copyright violations. The paper’s spokesperson defended the court’s order, stating that the data provided would be anonymized and that the lawsuit is about protecting intellectual property. The legal dispute has drawn attention to broader questions about data privacy, corporate accountability, and the ethical use of artificial intelligence in the digital age.