Sam Altman says AI chats should be as private as ‘talking to a lawyer or a doctor’, but OpenAI could soon be forced to keep your ChatGPT conversations forever
- The New York Times is requesting that all ChatGPT conversations be retained as part of its lawsuit against OpenAI and Microsoft
- This would mean that a record of all your ChatGPT conversations would be kept, potentially forever
- OpenAI argues that chats with AI should be a private conversation
Back in December 2023, the New York Times launched a lawsuit against OpenAI and Microsoft, alleging copyright infringement. The New York Times alleges that OpenAI had trained its ChatGPT model, which also powers Microsoft’s Copilot, by “copying and using millions” of its articles without permission.
The lawsuit is still ongoing, and as part of it the New York Times (and other plaintiffs involved in the case) have made the demand that OpenAI are made to retain consumer ChatGPT and API customer data indefinitely, much to the ire of Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, who took to X.com to tweet, “We have been thinking recently about the need for something like ‘AI privilege’; this really accelerates the need to have the conversation. IMO talking to an AI should be like talking to a lawyer or a doctor. I hope society will figure this out soon.”
recently the NYT asked a court to force us to not delete any user chats. we think this was an inappropriate request that sets a bad precedent.we are appealing the decision.we will fight any demand that compromises our users’ privacy; this is a core principle.June 6, 2025
OpenAI describes the New York Times lawsuit as “baseless”, and in a lengthy post on the OpenAI website titled, ‘How we’re responding to The New York Times’ data demands in order to protect user privacy’, OpenAI lays out its approach to privacy.
Brad Lightcap, COO, OpenAI, says that the demand from the NYT “fundamentally conflicts with the privacy commitments we have made to our users. It abandons long-standing privacy norms and weakens privacy protections.”
Private investigations
As more and more people share intimate details of their lives with AI chatbots, which are often taking on the role of a therapist, I can appreciate the need to be able to keep AI conversations private, however, I can also see the NYT’s point of view that if there is evidence that supports its claims against OpenAI then it needs to have access to that data without OpenAI being able to declare it all as too private to share.
At the moment, a ChatGPT chat is removed from your account immediately when you delete the conversation, and scheduled for permanent deletion from OpenAI systems within 30 days. The order would mean that even deleted ChatGPT conversations would have to be retained by OpenAI.
As a ChatGPT user myself, I’ve always appreciated the ability to be able to remove conversations entirely. If OpenAI is forced to comply with this request, then it’s going to affect pretty much everybody who uses the service, on either a free, Plus, Pro, or Teams (but not Enterprise or Edu account holders).
The order also does not impact API customers who are using Zero Data Retention endpoints under OpenAI’s ZDR amendment.
OpenAI has said it has appealed the order to the District Court Judge and will inform us when it knows more.
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The New York Times is requesting that all ChatGPT conversations be retained as part of its lawsuit against OpenAI and Microsoft This would mean that a record of all your ChatGPT conversations would be kept, potentially forever OpenAI argues that chats with AI should be a private conversation Back in…
