Artificial intelligence company Anthropic has reached a major agreement with authors in a case that has drawn international attention. The firm will pay $1.5bn (£1.11bn) to settle a class action lawsuit over claims it used pirated books to train its Claude AI chatbot. The settlement, awaiting approval by US District Judge William Alsup, has been described by the authors’ lawyers as the largest publicly-reported copyright recovery in history.
Table of contents:
- William Alsup and the June ruling
- Andrea Bartz, Charles Graeber and Kirk Wallace Johnson
- Anthropic, Amazon and Alphabet
- Alex Yang and the future of AI training
William Alsup and the June ruling
In June, Judge William Alsup ruled that Anthropic’s use of copyrighted works was “exceedingly transformative” under US law. This meant that training AI with published books did not break copyright rules. However, the court still ordered the company to stand trial for allegedly holding more than seven million pirated books in its central library.
Key points from the decision included:
- The presence of millions of copied works in Anthropic’s database.
- The potential damages of up to $150,000 per copyrighted work.
- The rejection of Anthropic’s request to dismiss the case.
Anthropic was originally scheduled to face trial in December before reaching the settlement.
Andrea Bartz, Charles Graeber and Kirk Wallace Johnson
The lawsuit was filed last year by several well-known authors. Among them were:
- Andrea Bartz, best-selling mystery thriller writer of We Were Never Here.
- Charles Graeber, author of The Good Nurse.
- Kirk Wallace Johnson, author of The Feather Thief.
They accused Anthropic of stealing their work to build a multi-billion dollar business through its Claude AI chatbot.
Their lawyers described the settlement as historic. “It will provide meaningful compensation for each class work and sets a precedent requiring AI companies to pay copyright owners,” said lawyer Justin Nelson. “This settlement sends a powerful message to AI companies and creators alike that taking copyrighted works from these pirate websites is wrong.”
Anthropic, Amazon and Alphabet
Anthropic, supported financially by Amazon and Google-parent Alphabet, has promoted its Claude chatbot as an ethical alternative to competitors. The company said the agreement would “resolve the plaintiffs’ remaining legacy claims.”
Aparna Sridhar, Deputy General Counsel at Anthropic, added: “We remain committed to developing safe AI systems that help people and organisations extend their capabilities, advance scientific discovery, and solve complex problems.”
The deal comes as other major firms such as OpenAI, Microsoft and Meta face similar lawsuits over the use of copyrighted material in training AI.
Alex Yang and the future of AI training
The case has also raised broader questions about cooperation between creators and AI developers. Alex Yang, Professor of Management Science and Operations at London Business School, explained the importance of balancing copyright with innovation. “You need that fresh training data from human beings,” he said. “If you want to grant more copyright to AI-created content, you must also strengthen mechanisms that compensate humans for their original contributions.”
The $1.5bn agreement is the first of its kind in the AI era and sets a precedent that could influence ongoing and future disputes across the technology sector.
Source: BBC, YouTube