Three authors filed a class-action lawsuit against AI company Anthropic, alleging copyright infringement in the training of its chatbot Claude. Writers Andrea Bartz, Charles Graeber and Kirk Wallace Johnson claimed Anthropic built a multibillion-dollar business by misusing copyrighted works and pirated writings without permission and without paying the authors for their work.
The lawsuit argues Anthropic’s AI model “seeks to profit from strip-mining the human expression and ingenuity” behind copyrighted works.
Anthropic confirmed it used a controversial dataset called “The Pile,” which includes a vast collection of pirated books in training its Claude AI chatbots.
This legal challenge not only questions Anthropic’s practices but also spotlights the broader issue of fair compensation for creators in an era where AI systems can digest vast amounts of human-generated content.
The AI industry faces a pivotal moment as a wave of copyright infringement lawsuits, led by authors, artists and content creators, challenges the foundations of AI training practices.
This legal confrontation could reshape the landscape of AI development and set crucial precedents for the future of creative works in the digital era.
The authors are seeking damages and demanding that Anthropic cease using copyrighted material in the future.
