John Carreyrou, along with five other authors, has filed a copyright lawsuit against six major AI companies: xAI, Anthropic, Google, OpenAI, Meta, and Perplexity. The suit alleges that these companies used copyrighted books to train their large language models without permission, infringing on the authors' intellectual property rights. This legal action differs from previous class action suits, as the authors are pursuing individual claims to seek higher compensation for each infringed work.
The authors rejected Anthropic's $1.5 billion class action settlement, believing it undervalued their claims. They argue that AI companies should not be able to resolve copyright claims for minimal amounts through broad settlements. The lawsuit marks the first time xAI has been named in a copyright case related to AI training. The plaintiffs claim the AI firms downloaded pirated copies of their books from illegal sources to train their models, seeking individual statutory damages for each infringement.
The case highlights the growing tension between copyright protection and the development of generative AI technologies. It questions the legality of using copyrighted material to train AI models and seeks to establish fair compensation for authors. The outcome could significantly impact how AI companies approach copyright issues and compensate creators in the future.
