Around 500,000 writers will get at least $3,000 from a remarkable $1.5 billion settlement following a class action lawsuit against Anthropic. This landmark settlement marks the largest financial compensation in U.S. copyright history, but it shouldn’t be seen as a win for writers; instead, it favors technology companies. These major firms are eager to acquire extensive written material to train their large language models, which fuel AI chat applications like ChatGPT and Claude. Despite these advancements, the technology companies are struggling for fresh content after thoroughly scouring online resources. Consequently, Anthropic resorted to unlawfully obtaining millions of books from unauthorized sources to enhance its AI. The legal action, Bartz v. Anthropic, is just one of many against large corporations such as Meta, Google, OpenAI, and Midjourney regarding the legality of using copyrighted works for AI training.
This settlement does not directly assist the writers whose work contributed to AI development; it merely serves as a slap on the wrist for Anthropic, which recently acquired an extra $13 billion in funding. In June, Judge William Alsup determined that training AI with copyrighted material is legal, describing it as sufficiently “transformative” to qualify under the fair use doctrine, unchanged since 1976. The judge implied that Anthropic’s models, much like aspiring authors studying literature, leverage existing works to inspire creativity rather than copy. Although piracy urged the case to move to trial, the settlement does away with further legal proceedings. As noted by Aparna Sridhar, deputy general counsel at Anthropic, this pending settlement will resolve the plaintiffs’ unresolved claims, with the company committed to developing AI that enhances human abilities and solves complex challenges. With multiple lawsuits on AI and copyright ongoing, Bartz v. Anthropic will be a reference for jurists, though outcomes may differ, leading to varying judicial interpretations.
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