John Carreyrou and other authors bring new lawsuit against six major AI companies (techcrunch.com)

A group of authors, led by John Carreyrou, has filed a lawsuit against six prominent AI companies—Anthropic, Google, OpenAI, Meta, xAI, and Perplexity—accusing them of training their AI models using pirated copies of their books. This legal action comes on the heels of a previous class action lawsuit where a judge affirmed the legality of training AI on such materials but emphasized the illegality of the initial piracy. The new plaintiffs argue that the previous settlement, which allows authors to claim around $3,000 from a $1.5 billion fund, inadequately addresses the core issue of accountability for using stolen works to train lucrative AI technologies. This lawsuit is significant for the AI/ML community as it highlights ongoing tensions between content creators and AI companies over copyright infringement and fair compensation. The plaintiffs assert that the settlement agreements currently favor the AI companies and fail to reflect the true value of the authors' intellectual property, raising concerns about the financial implications for creators. As AI training practices continue to draw scrutiny, the outcomes of these lawsuits could set crucial precedents for the industry's approach to copyright, potentially impacting the future landscape of AI development and content usage.