Sam Altman Engages in a Public Confrontation with the New York Times

They Demand We Violate User Privacy

Sam Altman Engages in a Public Confrontation with the New York Times

In an unusually dramatic scene, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman engaged in a public confrontation with the New York Times during an appearance on a live tech podcast in San Francisco on Tuesday night.

The event, held inside a venue used to host jazz concerts, featured a live recording of the popular Hard Fork podcast, hosted by Times journalists Kevin Roose and Platformer's Casey Newton. Altman, accompanied by OpenAI's chief operating officer, Brad Lightcap, was the highlight of the evening, but it didn't take long before he opened fire on the venerable newspaper, according to a report by TechCrunch.

As soon as he took the stage, Altman asked in a sarcastic tone, "Are you going to talk about suing us because you don't care about user privacy?" —Referring to the New York Times lawsuit against OpenAI and its partner, Microsoft, in which the two companies are accused of using their articles to train AI models without permission.

Altman expressed his dismay at the newspaper's legal request to force OpenAI to retain records of ChatGPT user data and APIs, even in private mode, considering this request "violates the very essence of user privacy." Despite his strong criticism, he emphasized, "We still love The New York Times, but we deeply disagree with it."

While the podcast hosts declined to comment on the case, citing their journalistic work, Altman continued to criticize what he described as the "irrational approach" by some publishers at a time when tech companies are beginning to achieve influential legal victories.

This escalation comes just days after Anthropic, a competitor to OpenAI, won a similar lawsuit. A federal judge ruled that training AI models on books is not infringement in some cases, potentially paving the way for broader legal victories for big tech companies.

Beyond the legal confrontation, Altman highlighted another battle taking place behind the scenes. He revealed that Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg is seeking to lure top talent from OpenAI, offering financial packages of up to $100 million.

 In response to a question about the strained relationship with Microsoft, OpenAI's strategic partner, Altman acknowledged "points of tension" but emphasized that the partnership remains valuable for both parties in the long run.

At the end of the meeting, the discussion touched on sensitive topics, including the use of ChatGPT by some users with critical mental health conditions.

 Altman emphasized that the company is making proactive efforts to limit malicious use, but has yet to develop a fully effective mechanism to deter such behavior.

The meeting served as a mirror to the growing friction between Silicon Valley and traditional media institutions, as AI companies race to expand their influence amid a controversy that appears unlikely to end anytime soon.