OpenAI Bid to Shield Lawyer Messages Vexes Copyright Judge (1)

OpenAI Inc.'s confidential messages with attorneys about deleting pirated data may be protected by attorney-client privilege, a federal judge said, but “it’s not a good look” that the company waffled on its stance.

During a nearly three-hour hearing Friday in Manhattan, OpenAI pressed Judge Sidney H. Stein to overturn an order to share the messages with authors and newspapers suing the company for violating copyrights by training AI models on their works. The messages could expose OpenAI to billions in damages if they show the tech giant knowingly violated copyright law.

OpenAI initially told the plaintiffs it deleted the pirated ...