NY Times is reading your ChatGPT logs - what??

Author

Leo Rodman
July 07, 2025

Hello everyone! I’m excited to announce that I’ve merged with the newsletter “AI For Gods” - welcome to all my new subscribers!

I’d like to give all of you a free gift as a thank you for subscribing: my custom 88 page guide to ChatGPT! You can download it here: Download Link

Ok, now enjoy, and happy Monday!

A May 2025 court order in the New York Times copyright suit compels OpenAI to keep every consumer-tier ChatGPT conversation—including those users already deleted—so the Times’s lawyers can search them for evidence, overriding the platform’s 30-day deletion policy and up-ending the expectation that private chats would truly disappear. Because many people put highly sensitive material into ChatGPT—medical questions, legal drafts, proprietary code—the retroactive preservation of those logs feels like a sweeping breach of trust, effectively turning millions of intimate, non-party conversations into potential legal fodder. Even if access is limited to vetted counsel under strict confidentiality, the precedent that one litigant can force indefinite retention of such personal data erodes user confidence in AI privacy promises and chills open experimentation online. Privacy advocates warn that once a dataset like this exists it can leak, be hacked, or be subpoenaed in future cases, converting what was meant to be ephemeral chatbot dabbling into a permanent record vulnerable to fishing expeditions.

NYT to start searching deleted ChatGPT logs after beating OpenAI in court

What are the odds NYT will access your ChatGPT logs in OpenAI court battle?

arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2025/07/nyt-to-start-searching-deleted-chatgpt-logs-after-beating-openai-in-court

TikTok is being flooded with racist AI videos generated by Google’s Veo 3

Google and TikTok have rules against this sort of thing, but it doesn’t seem to matter.

arstechnica.com/ai/2025/07/racist-ai-videos-created-with-google-veo-3-are-proliferating-on-tiktok

How AI Is Changing E-Commerce

Also in the Forbes CMO newsletter: Using pictures for authentic sustainability stories, bringing real corporate logos to fictional racing, it’s sale (and tariff) season.

www.forbes.com/sites/cmo/2025/07/02/how-ai-is-changing-e-commerce

Could Google’s Veo 3 be the start of playable world models? | TechCrunch

Demis Hassabis, CEO of Google DeepMind, hinted Tuesday evening that Veo 3, Google’s latest video generating model, could potentially be used for video games. 

techcrunch.com/2025/07/02/could-googles-veo-3-be-the-start-of-playable-world-models

Senators Reject 10-Year Ban on State-Level AI Regulation

In a blow to Big Tech, senators rejected a plan to block states from regulating AI for 10 years

time.com/7299044/senators-reject-10-year-ban-on-state-level-ai-regulation-in-blow-to-big-tech

Premier League Makes An AI Play To Enhance The Fan Experience

The Premier League didn’t sign who you might expect this summer. Instead of a star striker or record-breaking winger, it brought Microsoft onto the roster.

www.forbes.com/sites/ronschmelzer/2025/07/02/premier-league-makes-an-ai-play-to-enhance-the-fan-experience

Perplexity launches a $200 monthly subscription plan | TechCrunch

Perplexity launched a $200 monthly subscription plan this week, becoming the latest AI provider to offer a hyper-premium tier.

techcrunch.com/2025/07/02/perplexity-launches-a-200-monthly-subscription-plan

Pay up or stop scraping: Cloudflare program charges bots for each crawl

Cloudflare now beta testing pay-per-crawl feature to stop endless AI scraping.

arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2025/07/pay-up-or-stop-scraping-cloudflare-program-charges-bots-for-each-crawl

Amazon's Andy Jassy says AI will take some jobs but make others more 'interesting'

Meanwhile, tech giants like Amazon and Microsoft are slashing their workforce amid massive spending to build and deploy new AI models.

www.zdnet.com/article/amazons-andy-jassy-says-ai-will-take-some-jobs-but-make-others-more-interesting

ChatGPT referrals to news sites are growing, but not enough to offset search declines | TechCrunch

Not surprisingly, organic traffic has also declined, dropping from over 2.3 billion visits at its peak in mid-2024 to now under 1.7 billion.

techcrunch.com/2025/07/02/chatgpt-referrals-to-news-sites-are-growing-but-not-enough-to-offset-search-declines

Half a million Spotify users are unknowingly grooving to an AI-generated band

A supposed band called The Velvet Sundown has released two albums of AI slop this month.

arstechnica.com/ai/2025/06/half-a-million-spotify-users-are-unknowingly-grooving-to-an-ai-generated-band

How AI Is Making Hiring and Firing Decisions

A survey highlights AI's growing role in human resources work that impact people’s lives—sometimes without human supervision.

www.inc.com/kit-eaton/how-ai-is-making-hiring-and-firing-decisions/91209063

X is piloting a program that lets AI chatbots generate Community Notes | TechCrunch

The social platform X will pilot a feature that allows AI chatbots to generate Community Notes, a Twitter-era feature that Elon Musk has expanded under his ownership of the service now called X.

techcrunch.com/2025/07/01/x-is-piloting-a-program-that-lets-ai-chatbots-generate-community-notes

In a wild time for copyright law, the US Copyright Office has no leader

Rudderless Copyright Office has taken on new prominence during the AI boom.

arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2025/06/in-a-wild-time-for-copyright-law-the-us-copyright-office-has-no-leader

Tripadvisor's AI Revolution: How Data and Creativity are Reshaping Travel Partnerships

Christine Maguire, Global VP at Tripadvisor, shares insights on the company's commitment to sustainable travel, AI-powered personalization and evolving the traveler's journey.

www.latimes.com/b2b/events/cannes-lions/story/christine-magquire-interview

Grammarly acquires AI email client Superhuman | TechCrunch

In its announcement, Grammarly said it wants to build AI agents for emails using Superhuman's tech.

techcrunch.com/2025/07/01/grammarly-acquires-ai-email-client-superhuman

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