Amazon-backed AI firm Anthropic sued by authors

Amazon’s (NASDAQ:AMZN) part-owned AI firm Anthropic is facing new legal scrutiny with lawsuits landing from authors.

A number of authors and musicians have filed against Anthropic for copyright infringement.

Through a class-action lawsuit the authors allege that Anthropic used pirated versions of their books and potentially hundreds of thousands of others to train its AI-powered chatbot, Claude.

The group of writers – including Andrea Bartz, Charles Graeber, and Kirk Wallace Johnson - claim that Anthropic’s actions constitute large-scale theft, which they say has impacted their rights as creators.

They are seeking monetary damages and a court order to prevent further misuse of their work.

It is the latest in a number challenges targeting AI companies, others have filed against OpenAI and Meta Platforms, which have also been accused of unlawfully using copyrighted materials to train their systems.

The authors argue that Anthropic’s use of their work for AI training goes beyond the bounds of fair use, a defense often cited by tech companies.