Anthropic, an artificial intelligence company, is facing a class-action lawsuit in a California federal court. Three authors filed the lawsuit, claiming the company illegally used their books. They also allege that it used hundreds of thousands of other books to train its AI chatbot, Claude.
The authors, Andrea Bartz, Charles Graeber, and Kirk Wallace Johnson, allege that Anthropic used pirated versions of their works to develop Claude’s ability to respond to user prompts. The complaint, filed on Monday, highlights the growing concerns over the use of copyrighted materials to train AI systems.
This case joins a wave of similar lawsuits, as copyright holders in various industries. Visual artists, news outlets, and record labels are challenging tech companies’ use of protected content to train AI models.
Authors and copyright holders have sued companies like OpenAI and Meta Platforms for allegedly misusing copyrighted material. Music publishers previously filed a lawsuit against Anthropic over its use of copyrighted song lyrics to train Claude.
The authors argue that Anthropic built a multi-billion dollar business by “stealing” their works. The lawsuit seeks financial compensation and a permanent injunction to prevent further misuse of the authors’ works. Anthropic has received significant backing from Amazon, Google, and former cryptocurrency billionaire Sam Bankman-Fried.
