Publishing company Anthropic agrees to settle author lawsuit claiming copyright violation
An artificial intelligence company, Anthropic, has resolved a class action lawsuit filed by a group of U.S. authors, marking the first settlement in a string of major AI copyright lawsuits in the United States. The lawsuit, which also targeted companies like OpenAI, Microsoft, and Meta Platforms, alleged that Anthropic's AI training infringed on the copyrights of the authors.
The settlement between Anthropic and the authors is expected to be announced in the coming weeks, with details to follow. The trial aimed at determining the damages Anthropic owed for the piracy allegations was scheduled to begin in December, but the terms of the settlement were not described in the court filing.
The authors' attorney, Justin Nelson, stated that the settlement will benefit all class members. The lawsuit was filed by authors Andrea Bartz, Charles Graeber, and Kirk Wallace Johnson last year, accusing Anthropic of unlawfully using pirated books without permission or compensation for teaching its AI assistant Claude to respond to human prompts.
The court previously ruled that Anthropic may have illegally downloaded as many as 7 million books from pirate websites. However, Anthropic's spokesperson declined to comment on the filing, and the central library, according to the court, may not have necessarily been used for AI training.
Despite being found to have made fair use of authors' work for AI training, Anthropic violated their rights by saving millions of pirated books to a "central library." If successful, the authors' case could have potentially made Anthropic liable for billions of dollars in damages. Under U.S. copyright law, willful copyright infringement can justify statutory damages of up to $150,000 per work.
Anthropic, a company backed by Amazon and Alphabet, is one of several tech giants facing copyright lawsuits over AI training. The resolution of this lawsuit serves as a significant milestone in the ongoing debate about the boundaries of AI and copyright law. As more AI systems are developed and integrated into our daily lives, these cases are likely to become increasingly important in shaping the future of AI ethics and intellectual property rights.
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