Three Authors File Class-Action Lawsuit Against AI Firm Anthropic for Copyright Infringement

In a federal court in California, three authors have filed a class-action lawsuit against Anthropic, accusing the AI company of illegally using their books -- and hundreds of thousands of others -- to train its AI chatbot, Claude.

The lawsuit, initiated on Monday, was brought by writers Andrea Bartz, Charles Graeber and Kirk Wallace Johnson. They allege that Anthropic utilized pirated versions of their works to enhance Claude's ability to respond to user prompts.

Anthropic has acknowledged the lawsuit but has refrained from further comment, citing ongoing litigation. An attorney representing the authors has also declined to provide any details.

This lawsuit is part of a broader trend, with copyright holders from various fields -- such as visual arts, journalism, and music -- challenging tech companies over the use of their content to train generative AI models.

Previous cases have been filed against OpenAI and Meta Platforms for similar reasons.

This is the second legal action against Anthropic, following a previous suit by music publishers who claimed that the company improperly used copyrighted song lyrics in training Claude.

The authors' complaint asserts that Anthropic has built a substantial business by illegally appropriating copyrighted books, and names major investors including Amazon, Google, and former cryptocurrency magnate Sam Bankman-Fried.

The lawsuit seeks unspecified monetary damages and an injunction to prevent Anthropic from continuing to misuse the authors' works.

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