Anthropic's $1.5 Billion Copyright Settlement Gets US Judge's Preliminary Approval
They plaintiffs had alleged that Anthropic illegally used pirated books authored by them to train its generative AI assistant Claude.
Anthropic's settlement of a copyright class action lawsuit worth $1.5 billion was given preliminary approval by a federal judge on Friday, according to Reuters. The lawsuit was initiated by a group of authors who stated that the AI company had violated copyright law by training their generative AI using their works without their legal permission.
California Judge William Alsup will be the one in charge of giving the settlement final approval after notifying the authors that were affected by Ahtropic's AI training practices. Alsup called the settlement "fair" during the Thursday hearings according to a statement from the authors' representatives to Reuters.
He had initially declined to approve the settlement stating that the authors had left many questions "unanswered." The deal is one of the first success stories of creators receiving compensation for their works being used for AI without their consent.
Many other entities have also effectuated lawsuits against big names in the AI space such as OpenAI, Microsoft and Meta, citing the same problem.
Alsup's decision brings us one step closer to real accountability for Anthropic and puts all AI companies on notice they can’t shortcut the law or override creators’ rights, Andrea Bartz, Charles Graeber and Kirk Wallace Johnson who were the ones who brought about the lawsuit, said to Reuters.
They had alleged that Anthropic illegally used pirated books authored by them to train its generative AI assistant Claude. After Alsup initially ruled in their favour, it was discovered that Claude had unlawfully stored 7 million pirated books to a "central library."
Maria Pallante, the president of the Association of American Publishers told Reuters that the move was "a major step in the right direction in holding AI developers accountable for reckless and unabashed infringement."
Anthropic will be paying out $3,000 a book for up to 500,000 books. If more claims are submitted according to the lawsuit. The firm also agreed to destroy the data it was accused of illegally acquiring.
