Anthropic Settles Authors' Copyright Lawsuit for $1.5 Billion

Artificial intelligence company Anthropic has agreed to pay $1.5 billion to settle a class-action lawsuit filed by authors who alleged the company used pirated copies of their books to train its AI chatbot, Claude. The settlement, pending judicial approval, would compensate authors approximately $3,000 for each of the estimated 500,000 works involved.

The lawsuit, initiated by authors Andrea Bartz, Charles Graeber, and Kirk Wallace Johnson, accused Anthropic of downloading millions of books from unauthorized sources, including Library Genesis and Pirate Library Mirror, to develop its language models.

In June, U.S. District Judge William Alsup ruled that while using legally obtained books for AI training could be considered fair use, Anthropic's acquisition of over 7 million pirated books constituted copyright infringement.

Anthropic's deputy general counsel, Aparna Sridhar, stated that the settlement, if approved, would resolve the plaintiffs' remaining claims.

This case is among the first major settlements addressing the use of copyrighted material in AI training, potentially setting a precedent for similar lawsuits against other tech companies.