Authors Sue Anthropic for Alleged Copyright Infringement in AI Training

Artificial intelligence startup Anthropic is facing a class-action lawsuit in California federal court, filed by three authors accusing the tech firm of illegally using their works to train its AI-powered chatbot, Claude. The lawsuit, initiated by authors Andrea Bartz, Charles Graeber, and Kirk Wallace Johnson on Monday, alleges that Anthropic misused pirated versions of their books, as well as hundreds of thousands of other copyrighted texts, to enhance the AI's ability to respond to human prompts.

Anthropic, backed by financial giants including Amazon and Google, and formerly supported by cryptocurrency figure Sam Bankman-Fried, has acknowledged the lawsuit but declined to provide any detailed comments due to ongoing litigation. Similarly, legal representatives for the authors have also refrained from commenting.

Anthropic is now dealing with its second lawsuit, having been previously targeted by music publishers for allegedly misappropriating copyrighted song lyrics to train Claude. In the most recent filing, the authors contend that Anthropic has built a multibillion-dollar enterprise by leveraging stolen intellectual property. They are seeking monetary damages and a permanent injunction to prevent the continued misuse of their work.

The lawsuit is the latest in a series of legal challenges tech companies face regarding the training of generative AI systems. Several other lawsuits have been filed by copyright holders across various industries, including visual artists, news organizations, and record labels, who argue that their materials were unlawfully used in the training of AI models without permission.