OpenAI Must Hand Over Execs’ Social Media DMs in Copyright Suits

OpenAI Inc. failed to convince a federal magistrate judge that California labor law precludes it from turning over executives’ social media messages to New York Times Co. and an authors group suing the company for copyright infringement.

Magistrate Judge Ona T. Wang rejected the AI company’s argument it couldn’t ask executives including CEO Sam Altman to hand over messages on social media platform X because of a section of California’s Labor Code that prevents employers from asking for access to an employee’s social media account, according to an opinion filed Tuesday.

Authors Guild and the New York Times are two ...