Investigative journalist John Carreyrou, notable for uncovering the Theranos scandal, has initiated legal action against prominent AI companies including xAI, Anthropic, Google, OpenAI, Meta, and Perplexity. The lawsuit, filed on Monday, alleges that these firms improperly utilized copyrighted materials, specifically books, to train their AI models without the necessary permissions.
Carreyrou is joined by five other authors in this suit, collectively arguing that tech giants have infringed upon their intellectual property rights in the pursuit of developing large language models. This legal move underscores a growing trend in 2023, where various content creators, including movie studios like Disney and major newspapers such as The New York Times and the Chicago Tribune, have rallied against AI firms for similar copyright violations. Some of these disputes have already resulted in settlements, such as the licensing agreement between Disney and OpenAI.
Unlike most lawsuits of this nature, this case has not been filed as a class action, a strategic choice made by the plaintiffs to ensure that their individual claims against LLM companies do not diminish in value. The lawsuit cites concerns that AI companies might reduce numerous significant claims to minimal settlements.
This legal battle also marks a first, as xAI has been named as a defendant. In response to news of the lawsuit, a representative from Perplexity stated that their company does not index books, while Anthropic has previously faced legal challenges from book publishers, notably settling a class-action suit with half a million authors for $1.5 billion. Critics point out that in that case, affected authors would receive only a small fraction of the potential damages outlined in the Copyright Act.
Engadget has reached out to the involved companies for further statements and will provide updates as more information emerges.
