SAN FRANCISCO, Saturday, August 24, 2024 – Anthropic, a rival to OpenAI and developer of the AI chatbot Claude, is facing a class-action lawsuit filed by three authors who allege copyright infringement in the training of their AI model.
The lawsuit, filed in a California federal court on Monday, accuses Anthropic of using pirated versions of the authors’ books to train Claude. This follows a similar lawsuit filed by Universal Music Group last year for allegedly using copyrighted songs without permission.
The suit, brought by authors Andrea Bartz, Charles Graeber, and Kirk Wallace Johnson, seeks unspecified damages and a permanent injunction against Anthropic’s use of their copyrighted material. Anthropic has not yet responded to requests for comment.
The turn of events highlights the ongoing legal battles surrounding copyright and AI training data. In February, a judge dismissed most claims against OpenAI for using copyrighted books to train its AI, but allowed a claim for violating California’s unfair competition law to proceed. In May, eight U.S. newspaper publishers filed a lawsuit against Microsoft and OpenAI for allegedly using their articles without permission.
Meanwhile, OpenAI, a competitor of Anthropic, has taken a different approach. This week, OpenAI announced a multi-year content partnership with media giant Condé Nast, publisher of Vogue and the New Yorker. This deal allows OpenAI to integrate content from these publications into its AI products, such as ChatGPT and SearchGPT, while ensuring “proper attribution and compensation” for Condé Nast.
