On June 3, 2025, OpenAI filed a legal memorandum titled “Memorandum of Law in Support of OpenAI Defendants’ Objection to Preservation Order at MDL ECF 33 Pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 72(a)” with the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. In the filing, OpenAI requested that Judge Sidney H. Stein overturn a prior preservation order issued by Magistrate Judge Ona T. Wang, which mandated the preservation and segregation of all output log data. OpenAI argued that the "broad and unprecedented" order poses a serious threat to the privacy rights of hundreds of millions of users and effectively strips users of control over their ChatGPT conversation data. (Case No. 1:23-cv-11195)

The preservation order had been granted in response to a motion from several news organization plaintiffs and marks a significant flashpoint in the broader discovery battle within litigation addressing the novel legal question of how copyright law applies to artificial intelligence. The twelve consolidated cases under pretrial coordination are expected to have far-reaching implications for both AI technologies and the content industries.

Court records indicate that Judge Wang assured OpenAI on May 27 that user data would not be made public. However, on May 29, she denied OpenAI’s motion to vacate the preservation order. The plaintiff news organizations argued the order is necessary to counter claims that AI is rarely used by users to infringe copyright.

In its memorandum, OpenAI contended that the plaintiffs failed to present any non-speculative justification for the effectiveness of the order, and did not offer proof that anyone outside of the plaintiffs had attempted to use ChatGPT to replicate their content. The company further emphasized that preserving all user data would be unduly burdensome, potentially exposing sensitive information such as financial records, marital communications, and corporate trade secrets.

OpenAI has requested an oral hearing on the matter.