News publishers urge judge to sanction OpenAI for destroying evidence in copyright suit.

News publishers have urged a judge to sanction OpenAI, alleging the company concealed or destroyed evidence and engaged in discovery misconduct during a high-stakes lawsuit over unauthorized use of copyrighted articles to train AI models. This legal escalation follows a growing wave of copyright infringement claims by more than 30 local newspaper publishers who accuse OpenAI and Microsoft of systematically stealing hundreds of thousands of articles without permission or payment. The dispute critically affects the financial viability of news organizations, which argue that AI products like ChatGPT and Copilot deprive them of revenue by using their content without directing users back to their websites. The outcome of this case could reshape how artificial intelligence companies are permitted to use copyrighted material in the United States, with significant implications for intellectual property rights in the digital age.