The New York Times and The Daily News are alleging that OpenAI has been withholding crucial evidence in their copyright lawsuit, claiming the tech firm hid its ability to search through customer chat data and training datasets.

During a court-ordered deposition, OpenAI’s data privacy engineer reportedly revealed that the company had already conducted internal searches of its training corpus. This revelation comes as the plaintiffs originally requested 120 million chat logs but received just 20 million with extensive redactions – rendering it essentially useless for the lawsuit.

In a defense statement, OpenAI accused The New York Times of attempting to access private user conversations as their case weakens. They argue that they are defending users' privacy and fair use principles, while the plaintiffs claim OpenAI has manipulated evidence by deleting logs after filing suit and substituting others in the sample.

The ongoing legal battle highlights the complex ethical considerations surrounding AI development and data usage. If true, these allegations could have significant implications for the way companies handle user data and transparency in legal disputes involving AI technology.